


Moving Forward

by Accretion



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Kate stands up for herself, Suicidal Thoughts, Victoria and Max as friends?, the love triangle is broken
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-04-29 12:52:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 41,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5128313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accretion/pseuds/Accretion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe is gone and Max has to relive the strangest week of her life anew, though lacking her rewind powers. Her knowledge of events and people has some rather interesting consequences that she never could have imagined, mysterious text messages, and the single worst thing that could happen to Max after losing Chloe.  Teasers in my tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Result

**Author's Note:**

> This story flows from the following consequences/ideas.
> 
> Kate died.  
> Max warned Victoria and Victoria warmed up.  
> Max left the darkroom with both Chloe's necklace and Victoria's Bracelet.  
> Max sacrificed Chloe.  
> Max's journal remained intact.
> 
> Please feel free to leave comments/kudos/suggestions/etc.

Like all the other Blackwell Academy students Victoria Chase waited around the courtyard waiting to see what all the police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks were on campus for. There were rumors flying around that some girl got shot in the bathroom by Nathan Prescott. The tall blonde didn’t want to believe it, but as her and her lackeys surveyed the crowd there were only two students that Victoria couldn’t account for—Nathan and Max Caulfield.

She shivered at the thought that Nathan would waste the time and throw away his life on that hipster trash. _Stop being jealous Victoria, you know Max isn’t hipster trash. You’re just pissed that she doesn’t give a single fuck about you or your precious Vortex Club._ Victoria narrowed her eyes as her thoughts betrayed her. She did want to hate Max and found every excuse she could to, but the reality is that Victoria hated almost everyone.

Victoria looked over at Taylor and Courtney. Sure, she had done things to show that she could be a decent human being. After all she consoled Taylor during her mother’s surgery. But at the same time there was always the mantra of “Keep your friends close…” and Victoria kept Courtney and Taylor very close.

Finally there was movement at the front entrance and like everyone else Victoria payed rapt attention. Her bitchiness towards her fellow students was paying its usual dividends as she was at the front corner of the crowd—she’d see everything first and everyone would have to pass right by her.

Nathan came out first, hands cuffed behind his back as he was escorted out by two police officers. Victoria couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Nathan looked as though he was sobbing, another breakdown and he was babbling.

“He made me do it. He made me do it all,” he could be heard by Victoria. “I drugged up that jesus freak at the party, I took her away. I drugged her. I drugged Kate.”

Victoria shivered as Nathan passed, he didn’t even seem to notice she was there, she didn’t know if he noticed anyone at all. _Oh fuck, did he just say he drugged Kate? Is that why she was being such a slut at the party? Well shit, that video was funny when we just thought it was Kate being a hypocrite, but if Nathan drugged her?_ Okay, so Victoria was definitely a bitch, a fact she wore as a badge of honor, but even that was low to her.

She pulled out her phone and went to YouTube. Her fingers worked fast and it took just a few seconds before the site was asking if she was sure she wanted to delete the video. As she looked back to see Nathan still babbling uncontrollably, she confirmed the delete and the video was gone. Another thirty seconds and the katesvid.com website was offline. She knew that at some point the Police would ask for information so she just took it down but was ready to show it if she needed to.

Gasps emerged from the crowd and the distracted Victoria looked up. On a gurney was someone who was completely covered being taken out by medical personnel. Alongside them was none other than Blackwell’s chief of security David Madsen who looked like he too had lost it and was crying. _That person is too tall to be Caulfield. Don’t tell me the hipster was too lost in everything to even be a witness to whatever these events were._

It didn’t take too long for Victoria to find out that Max wasn’t too lost at all, she was being escorted out by several police officers--a blanket wrapped tightly around her as she walked. Max too had obviously been sobbing too. _What a shock, no makeup streaks, like Caulfield would wear makeup._ Victoria pursed her lips together for thinking such a thing. She obviously wasn’t in cuffs and was being comforted, so naturally Victoria’s curiosity got the better of her as Max approached.

Max was within five feet of Victoria before she looked up, seeming possessed, at the queen bitch of Blackwell. Victoria felt frozen in time as Max’s eyes bored directly through her. “You have to stop Kate,” she said with a ferocity and seriousness that Victoria never believed was possible from Max.

The eye contact broke and Max was just escorted past and helped into a car to presumably go to the police station. _Stop Kate? What’s she on about?_ But before she could answer her own thought Taylor spoke up.

“I think it’s too late to stop Kate’s insatiable lust,” she said to nervous laughs from Courtney and a few other Vortex Club members who were hanging around.

Victoria ignored them and started looking around for Kate. The way Max looked at her and talked to her was driving Victoria to act on pure instinct—she had to know what Lamefield was talking about.

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Victoria said almost absently as she set off on her new mission—find Kate Marsh.


	2. Saving Kate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria searches Kate's room to find out why she needed to be stopped.

Victoria only spent a few seconds knocking on Kate’s door before she reached down to the handle and turned. _Of course it’s going to open—Kate thinks everybody is an angel deep down inside. Even with the video she still hasn’t learned that some of us are assholes._ Victoria poked her head in first and called out “Kate?” No answer of course so she let herself inside the room and quickly shut the door behind her.

She had seen the inside of the room from the hallway before, but even Victoria had to admit that the room wasn’t what she thought it would be—it was much darker than she imagined. Glancing to the left she saw the mirror was covered by some sort of cloth. This struck Victoria as rather odd given the amount of time she spent each morning preening. _Maybe she hates looking at herself after the video. I know I would._

Another shiver from Victoria. She had to put those thoughts out of her mind and pronto. Oh look, a happy colorful drawing. Victoria probably didn’t even realize she smiled while looking at it. A tablet sat on the couch to her right and she picked it up, unsurprised to find there was no lock code on it. She read through the email that was currently open, sent just a few hours ago. _What the actual fuck? I thought I was a cold, heartless bitch. I could take lessons from her mother for sure._

A pang of guilt swept over Victoria. Sure, she thought it was funny that the bible thumper would make out with whoever was close to her at the party (this of course before knowing she didn’t take the drugs voluntarily), but to see her mother flip out at it was a little much for her. She set the tablet down and kept looking around.

A garbage can filled with more used tissues than she could count was the next thing to worry Victoria. She tried to shrug it off but with every breath she felt more constricted. There were pictures of happy times, a jesus picture on the wall, and a disturbing drawing on the floor that she likened to H.R. Giger. It was a letter on a dresser in her closet that caught her attention—the nice paper and the calligraphy reminding her of herself. She picked up the letter from Kate’s Auntie Marsh and read it.

“Oh my God, what have I done?” Victoria said as she dropped the letter.

“What are you doing in here Victoria?”

Victoria’s whole body felt cold. She was so preoccupied reading a letter that felt like pure evil and judgement to her to notice that Kate had come back to her room. The blonde slowly turned herself around to face the girl she had been tormenting in ways far worse than she could imagine.

Kate looked just as shocked as Victoria felt. In Kate’s hand were a few carrots, presumably for the rabbit she just noticed out of the corner of her eye.

“Kate,” Victoria responded.

“Why are you in here Victoria, trying to find some other way to bring me down?”

Tears welled up in Victoria’s eyes. “No Kate, I didn’t know, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah right, that’s why every time you’re around I hear the video being mentioned.”

Victoria could only shake her head. “I deleted it. I didn’t know that Nathan had drugged you.”

The look on Kate’s face was very telling to Victoria—any doubts she had about Nathan drugging her without her knowledge ended quickly when Kate simply responded, “Is that why I don’t remember?”

Another pang of guilt flowed through Victoria. _Fuck, it’s true._ “Yes Kate. If Nathan drugged you with the right thing you’d act all wild and crazy but not remember anything.”

_“Oh. It’s too late. The bottle of pills should take effect any…” and with that Kate collapsed to the ground._

Victoria collapsed to her knees and cried out, “NO!”

Kate looked at Victoria confused and rushed over to the mean girl of Blackwell. “What’s wrong Victoria?”

The pixie-haired blonde shook her head and looked up at Kate confused for just a second. “But you, you…” she shook her head. “I just had a hallucination, that you…”

The look of worry continued on Kate’s face. “That I what Victoria?”

“You… you swallowed a bottle of pills to take your life.”

Kate stepped back from the crying Victoria but remained quiet for a full minute. Victoria couldn’t believe how real that vision seemed to her, all she could do saw finish sitting on the ground.

“I wouldn’t take pills. I think I would jump.”

Victoria’s eyes bulged out wide as she looked up at Kate. “You’ve been thinking about it?”

Kate took a very deep breath and nodded once.

Victoria cried out again as if pain, making Kate jump. “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t Kate. I know it was a bitchy thing to do but it’s not worth it.” _Did Max know?_

“Nobody here cares about me Victoria. Do you think anyone would even miss me here if I were gone?”

“Max Caulfield.”

Kate lets out a single sound of a laugh. “Max is sweet, but she’s aloof enough I don’t even know how she really feels.”

Victoria cocked her head at this, the response made no sense to her. “Um Kate, you know Max was escorted out of the school by police right?”

Kate nodded slowly, “What’s your point Victoria?”

“Max looked at me and said I needed to stop you. It’s like she knew you were thinking it.”

Kate quirked her eyebrows at Victoria. “Max said that?”

Victoria can only manage to nod for a moment. “What about Brooke and Stella?”

Kate nods slowly to that as well but remains quiet.

“Why did you do it Victoria?”

Victoria sighs and takes a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears that unlike Caulfield have certainly ruined her makeup.

“I could say because it was funny to watch the resident bible thumping jesus freak get all slutty on just a sip of wine. I could say it’s because I hate you and think you needed to be taken down a peg.”

Neither of these responses were endearing herself to Kate. _Here goes nothing._

“But the reality is that I’m a big fucking loser with no self-esteem so I need to shoot down everybody else for whatever flaws I can to make myself feel like I’m not such a worthless piece of shit. Considering how happy and nice you always are there seemed to be only one appropriate way to do it. I hate myself for it and I know how pathetic I look right now. I hate being so fucking weak.”

Victoria looked up to see Kate moving toward her fast—she knew that she deserved the attack that was coming and didn’t even try to brace herself for the assault that she just knew she had to goad the good Christian into. Kate did rush into Victoria, but she put her arms around her and gave her a hug.

“I’m so sorry Victoria.”

_Um, what the fuck?_

“Um, what the fu… what do you mean you’re sorry Kate?”

Kate squeezed a little harder. “I was too busy wallowing in my own misery that I didn’t realize it was really you who was suffering.”

_Okay, now I’m lost._

“You’re not weak Victoria. It takes a strong person to admit what you just did admit. Yeah I’m mad and I’m hurt, but you’re hurting too. But this is part of the healing process.”

Victoria didn’t really know how to respond to this strange turn of events. She reached her arms around Kate to hug back, though not nearly as strong as Kate was holding her. _She could be trying to hug me to death right now. It seems to be working._

“I’m still hurting Victoria. I take it you saw the letter from my auntie. It won’t be easy, but maybe we can still talk? Max owed me a tea date but she’s probably busy at the police station. Want to take her place?”

Victoria Chase let out a sigh of relief. _Alright Max, I think I saved her._ She was truly in bizarro world—here she was about to have a tea date with Kate Marsh and talk through feelings, and yet Victoria couldn’t remember a time when she had been so happy to just talk to someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, comments and Kudos appreciated.
> 
> And sorry, I couldn't help having Victoria with a vision of Kate having already done the deed.


	3. Behind the Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suspicions and Confessions at the Police Station

David Madsen remained crying and distraught in one of the conference rooms at the Arcadia Bay Police station. The coffee he has been brought sits there as black and cold as he feels right now—Chloe may not have loved him but he only wanted the best for her, and now he had failed to protect his family.

“We can start whenever you want Mister Madsen,” one of the others in the room told him—he wasn’t sure which it was as he had yet to look up.

“I’d like to wait for Joyce if that is alright.”

“Of Course Mister Madsen.”

_How am I going to explain this to Joyce? How am I going to live with what happened? I could have stopped this somehow._

\---

As Joyce Madsen entered the police station still in her waitressing uniform from the Two Whales Diner her eyes caught an all too familiar face. Max stood up in response to seeing Joyce. Chloe’s mom went over to Max and pulled the eighteen-year-old in for a hug.

“I heard you were there with her when she…”

Max nodded.

“I wish we didn’t have to meet again like this Max.”

“Me too Joyce. Me too.”

One of the officers came out and asked, “Joyce Madsen?”

Joyce broke the hug with Max and nodded.

“If you’ll come with me.”

Another nod from the likely still-in-shock mother. Max nodded (she couldn’t smile still) to indicate that she would be alright alone for the time being.

Once Joyce left her to go be with David Max pulled out her phone and got to work, ignoring the two dozen missed calls and fifty text messages she’d received in the last few hours.

\---

David wasn’t relieved to see Joyce, but at the same time he knew he couldn’t be here without her. The look on her own face told him that she was shell-shocked by the news, that she hadn’t even processed that Chloe was gone quite yet. She hadn’t seen a body, she hadn’t heard the story yet. David had seen the look before from his time as a soldier, and as it did during wartime it still broke his heart.

Joyce for her part rushed over to David, who did finally stand up to hold his wife tight. One of the detectives (who David now recognized as Charles Bruce) moved to take a seat. “Thank you for coming Mrs. Madsen.”

“Joyce please. And can someone tell me what happened. I get a frantic call from David that something’s happened to Chloe and before I know it the officers on break at the Diner tell me that I need to come with them immediately.”

Detective Bruce looked rather somber. “Preliminary findings are that Nathan Prescott shot your daughter through the abdomen. She died before paramedics could arrive on scene.”

Joyce’s hands instinctively jumped up to cover the look of horror on her face. _It is true. My baby, my precious Chloe, taken from me. WHY?_

“Now I believe Chloe had been previously expelled from Blackwell. Do either of you know why she was there today?”

They both shake their head.

“How about any interactions Miss Price had with Nathan Prescott.”

 _It sounds so cold and callous when you call her Miss Price._  Joyce shook her head immediately and David followed a second later.

Suddenly there’s a series of beeps from a cell phone.

“I’m sorry,” David says as he pulls out his phone. “That’s my Blackwell Security phone.”

Just as he is making a move to shut the phone off David suddenly stops and blinks several times. “Detective, you might want to read this.” David hands the phone over, shaking.

Detective Bruce raises his eyebrows as he looks at the message on the phone.

_Mister Madsen, you’re after Rachel Amber. Mark Jefferson is guilty. His Dark Room is under the Prescott’s farmhouse. You know the location. He’s sick and dangerous. Stop him. Her body is in the junkyard. Nathan knows. –CC_

After reading it several times the detective frowns. “Who is CC?”

David shakes his head. “No idea, though I know the farmhouse they’re talking about. I’ve seen Nathan and Mark Jefferson out there.”

The detective seemed to have tuned out once David indicated he didn’t know who sent the message from the blocked text number. “Get me the file on Nathan Prescott.”

One of the officers quickly hands the detective a file of papers and the one he is looking for is quickly found. The detective pulls out a piece of paper with mad raving writing saying ‘Rachel in the darkroom’ over and over.

“Get some officers ready, I’m going to go have a talk with Nathan Prescott. If he can confirm anything we’re raiding it this afternoon. Find out the location from David here. We might be able to get to the bottom of more than one mystery. And copy the phone so we can return it.”

Detective Bruce quickly stood up and excused himself. David and Joyce weren’t quite sure how to respond, but they silently wondered if Chloe’s death was just a small part of a much larger picture.

\---

Charles Bruce sat down in front of Nathan Prescott in an interrogation room. Behind the detective was a mirror so that department onlookers could watch without a suspect seeing them.

“Nathan, my name is Detective Bruce. I know you’ve been read your rights and have opted not to wait for your attorney, am I correct?”

Nathan wasn’t crying, but he certainly looked like his mind wasn’t all there.

“Alright, if at any point in time you should change your mind let me know and the questions will immediately end, am I clear?”

“Yes sir,” Nathan said meekly, no longer sounding like the arrogant man-child that acted like he owned this town.

“Good, good,” the detective started. “Now, first off can you tell me why you’re here.”

“I lost it and killed that blue-haired bitch,” Nathan responds, his voice sounding way too calm compared to how he was earlier when he was found by security and later the cops.

“Why Nathan?”

“I just lost it, okay? She was trying to tell me what to do and I pulled a gun on her. I didn’t mean to shoot her but in my rage I couldn’t help myself!” The calm in his voice was breaking and Nathan appeared to be getting worked up again.

“Why was she trying to tell you what to do?”

“Because.” Nathan pauses for a brief moment, and when his voice finds him again it’s starting to break. “Because I drugged her in my room. I was going to take her to the dark room, make him proud of me, show him I don’t always screw things up.”

“What darkroom Nathan? Who were you going to show that you don’t always screw things up, your father?”

The mention of his father sends Nathan into a hysterical laugh, the kind where you wonder if there’s any sanity left in the person making it.

“My father? Don’t be ridiculous. My father doesn’t care about me. It was all Mark Jefferson. He takes pictures of girls in his darkroom underneath our farmhouse.”

Detective Bruce looked back at the mirror—what better confirmation of the text messages authenticity could he get than Nathan outright admitting it.

“I didn’t mean to. He used me. They all use me. I didn’t mean to hurt Rachel, or Kate, not even Chloe. There were more in the past, and more coming.”

“More Nathan?”

“He had his eyes on my friend Victoria, and this stupid little hipster named Max.”

A deep breath was taken by the detective. “Why are you sharing all this now Nathan?”

“Because I’m tired of being used. I never wanted to hurt them.” He leans his head forward into the table, a sob coming from the defeated boy. “I just want to get better.”

The detective stood up. “Don’t worry Nathan, we’ll make arrangements. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He picked up his files and left. Nathan was babbling the same phrase over and over.

“I just want to get better.”

"I just want to get better."


	4. Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max returns to Blackwell and someone takes their fall.

Max had only been on campus for a few minutes when a crowd once again found itself gathering around the main building. The sun was setting and the lighting around campus had turned on. To an outsider she would look as though she were in a daze, but in her mind she knew different. A smile crossed her face as she realized that it wasn't snowing--all was well with the universe as it should be.

A part of her wanted to be alone—she hadn’t really had the chance to all day. If you could count the Friday that now never was, the darkroom, the nightmare, the sacrifice and the day that followed Max wasn’t even really sure anymore how long it had been since she had last fallen asleep. Waking up with the paralyzed Chloe Thursday morning was the last time she had natural sleep thanks to the drugs Jeffershit gave her. Despite the overwhelming urge to sleep she wanted to see what the crowd was about.

She pushed through, whispers and comments about her passing by her ears without them really being picked up. The other students were surprised she was back and of course wanted to know what really happened in the bathroom with Nathan and Chloe. As Max pushed forward she saw the one person she had hoped to see more than anyone in the world—Kate Marsh.

Max joined Kate and quietly said, “Hi.”

Kate jumped a little upon hearing Max and turned to her friend and wrapped her arms around the tortured brunette.

“Everyone’s been worried about you Max, are you okay?”

“No,” Max answered very quickly. It was true of course, though seeing the look on Kate’s face she adds, “I will be someday. What about you Kate? I know you’ve had a rough go of it lately.”

“Oh Max, you’ll never believe it. Victoria actually came by earlier. She deleted the video and admitted her part in recording it. She even told me,” Kate started to lower her voice, “she even told me that Nathan might have drugged me. Should I go to the police?”

She couldn’t smile, not at the news (that she already knew) that Kate had been drugged, but inside she was surprised that Victoria had done the right thing. It was just like last night… well, three days from now at the Vortex Club party. _Dear gawd, these next few days are going to be painful with tenses, aren’t they?_ “I have a feeling Kate that the police will be seeking you out soon enough, so yes you should tell them. What’s going on here anyway?”

Kate shook her head, “I’m not really sure. A bunch of police officers just stormed the building a few minutes ago. I don’t think anyone other than teachers are inside so I’m not su…” Kate’s response was stopped by her gasping aloud.

At the entrance to the school the answer became readily apparent as Mark Jefferson was being escorted out of the school with an officer on each side of him. Max allowed herself a second to smile and did a little fist pump.

“Why are they taking Mister Jefferson?” Kate wondered aloud.

Max looked at Kate, unsure whether to tell the good Christian girl of the bad things that Jefferson had done to her. “I’m sure that will be revealed in the next few days Kate. Nothing we can do about it now.”

Jefferson looked just as confused about the situation as Kate and the students did. The whispers and murmurs only increased but still Max tuned it out. Jefferson looked right at Max as he passed and Max subtly shook her head and smirked at him. Jefferson quickly looked away though Max didn’t know whether to take that as him understanding what she was implying, that his capture was her fault. Max knew she wasn’t going to ever forget her experiences in the dark room and how they made her feel.

“I’m beat Kate, I’m going to head back to the dorm.”

As Max turned to head to the dorm her hand was grabbed by Kate. “Max, do you really think you should be alone after the day you’ve had?”

Max actually let a little chuckle slip out at that—Kate truly had no idea how much worse Max’s day had been than what she probably guessed. Starting with helping your best friend die so she wouldn’t suffer would take a toll on anyone, but watching Chloe die as many times as she had since she last truly slept had drained Max completely.

“I don’t know, what are you suggesting Kate?”

“Well,” Kate said tentatively. “I know our beds aren’t very big, but we can have a sleepover in my room—you, me and Alice.”

Max sleepily nodded at that. “I’d like that Kate, though I’m not sure how that will help with classes tomorrow.”

Kate shook her head, “Class is cancelled tomorrow already. You can get all the rest you need.”

“Lead the way Kate.”

\---

Max’s return to the dorms seemed to buzz up the small crowd that was there but Max was having none of it. She ignored everyone, almost in a daze. Kate’s arm had gone around Max to help support her (both physically and emotionally) and those who wanted to be mad at Max ignoring them calmed down seeing how drained Max was looking.

She didn’t even go to her own dorm room, though she did glance it out of the corner of her eye. Her message board was filled and extra notes appeared to have been placed on and under her door. _I’ll deal with that tomorrow, along with all the text messages and phone calls. Tonight, sleep._

She followed Kate into her room and noted that the cloth no longer covered her mirror. _Nice job Victoria, I think you really came through._ Max slipped her shoes off on auto pilot and climbed on top of Kate’s bed without invitation and laid on her side.

Over the next half hour Kate was in and out of her room, getting changed, brushing teeth, assuring fellow dorm mates that Max was okay and just needed rest. By the time Kate had returned to her room Max was sound asleep in her clothes. Given that it was barely seven, Kate stayed up for a while working on school work.

When bedtime finally came Kate was careful to crawl into her own bed, afraid of waking the exhausted Max. Kate settled into the bed on her side facing away from Max, not wanting things to be too awkward for Max if she were to wake. Max had other ideas though and whether on purpose or out of instinct her free arm moved to wrap itself around Kate. The Christian girl, not even realizing that she was playing little spoon to Max smiled and put her hand on top of Max’s—content to let the long day end for them both and allow the morning to bring new beginnings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes this scene is another that is represented by the picture in the end cutscene. A lot more is to come that fills in more gaps.


	5. Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate does something new

Max’s sleep through the night was eerily calm for the hell that had been the ‘day’ for her. She probably could have slept for a week if it weren’t for the sunlight peeking in through Kate’s once again open windows, but more importantly the sound of violin filling the small dorm room.

Max stretched her arms over her head. “Hey, you’re playing your violin again.”

Kate stopped playing and smiled over at Max. “Well I still feel pretty bad, but I know that I’ll never get better if I don’t try to return to normal.”

“That’s awesome of you Marshmallow, a very mature attitude.”

Kate groans at the nickname. “Max, you do realize like everyone I’ve ever known has called me by that nickname.”

“Alright then bun-bun.”

“MAX!” Kate yelled loudly, clearly offended.

Max almost jumped clear up to the ceiling as she shot up with Kate’s exclamation. “What, what’d I do?”

For her part Kate was back to being much more quiet, much more discreet as though she were trying to whisper in public. “That’s what I call my…” and she kind of looks down and back behind her—Max picks up the implication immediately and falls back laughing.

Kate turns a new shade of red. “It’s not funny Max.” She tries to sound indignant but knows she is failing. _It’s nice to be embarrassed about something nonsensical rather than the awful things of the last week._

Max just continued to lay down on Kate’s bed when she heard Kate’s phone go off. She remained still with her eyes closed—she didn’t want to prevent Kate from answering her phone call. Max heard her friend take a deep breath before answering the phone.

“Hi Auntie Marsh,” Kate said tentatively, her voice slipping back into depression instead of sounding like she was soldiering through.

_This must be the same Auntie Marsh that wrote Kate that horrible letter._

She couldn’t make out the words that were being said to Kate, but the loud, shrill yelling and the occasional words like brimstone told Max that Kate was getting another reaming by this horrible family member. Max felt horrible for Kate as she didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t feel like she could do anything to help Kate at the moment.

The yelling continued and Max pulled the sheets tighter up over her head, making more than enough noise to draw Kate’s attention. _This is the day Kate tried to jump. I wonder if this is part of what pushed her over. Maybe this is why Kate called me that morning needing to talk._

A long sigh was heard from Kate again and Max’s heart broke. Max couldn’t just listen to Kate get beat up by a family member anymore—a loud deep breath from Kate was pushing her over the edge, but before Max could sit up and look at Kate, something happened.

“No, you listen Auntie Marsh.”

Max froze, not moving from her perch under the sheets. _What’s this?_

“I said you listen. You don’t care about what I did, who I am, or what’s going on in my life unless it makes you look bad. For your information I was drugged at the party hence why I appeared that way in the video.”

_Holy shit, is Kate standing up to her Aunt?_

“The video was taken down, the person who recorded it didn’t know I was drugged. Yes, the Police know, they already arrested the kid who drugged me. I’m supposed to go meet with the police later today.”

Max was sure that Kate could see her moving under the sheets wondering what was going on as she pumped her fists. This was the first time that she had experienced Kate not backing down in the face of adversity and Max couldn’t be more excited for her friend.

“You know Auntie Marsh, I don’t have to sit here and take this abuse from you. I know about amateur night when you were eighteen. If you’re going to judge me for something that happened when someone tried to attack me, then you should condemn yourself for actions you chose to perform.

_Wowsers, Kate is perhaps the sweetest girl I have ever met but boy can she be a firecracker._ Max sat up and pulled off the covers, looking at Kate who was standing and looking far more angry than Max even thought she was capable of being.

“Auntie Marsh, this conversation is over. You can call and speak to me again when you decide that you are going to be a concerned, compassionate Christian instead of a hypocritical, judgmental bitch!” With that last word Kate pulled the phone from her face, hit the end call button, and dropped the cell onto her couch.

Max leapt out of the bed and put her arms around Kate squeezing the blonde girl tightly. “That was so amazing Kate!”

Kate took a deep breath once Max let go enough to allow her to breathe. “Thanks Max. I guess a little bit of Victoria must have rubbed off on me yesterday.”

Max couldn’t help but grin. “Kate, that was all you and it was great. You have so many people who really care about you and want to see you happy that you need to learn to cast aside those who strive to shoot you down. Your aunt sounded pretty severe and I’m glad you didn’t just take the verbal beating she was giving you.”

Kate just smiled, the largest smile Max had seen from the girl in a long time. “Thanks Max, I don’t know that I would have had the courage if you weren’t here. I don’t know what I would have done without my best friend.”

As she heard Kate’s choice of words, Max’s heart just broke. _Chloe._ She quickly scrambled to find something, anything to hide how such innocent words from a wonderful person could shatter her so completely. Her phone! She quickly checked her phone and found it was dead.

“Um Kate,” Max mumbled while failing to sound stoic, “I need to go charge my phone, I’ll see you later.”

Confusion covered Kate’s face—did she say something wrong to Max? The poor girl in her moment of triumph was left confused over something that she couldn’t possibly know about.

“Um, I’ll come check on you later, bring some tea maybe Max?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’d be great,” Max responded as she quickly made her way out of Kate’s room.

The nice part about their dorm is that Max’s door was still no more than fifteen feet away from Kate’s, so even as she fled the scene she was never far away.

As Max opened her own door to hide she heard a door behind her open. _I hope that’s not Kate trying to chase me down._

“Maxine Caulfield, we need to talk,” the voice said authoritatively.

Max sighed, only one person in this school would call her Maxine.

Without looking back she responded the only way she could, “Alright Victoria.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Kate to have both a "grow a backbone" moment and a "drop the mic" moment, and I think I achieved that here. Yes, Kate said a swear word, but I'm hoping that everyone who read that line was as pumped reading it was I was writing it.


	6. A Fresh Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria and Max start hashing out their issues.

Max entered her room, nearly slipping on all of the notes and papers that people in the dorm slipped under her door in the last day, leaving the door open for Victoria to follow. Max expected this and knew that it was coming, she just didn’t expect that it would happen so fast.

She heard the door behind her shut and hesitantly said, “What is it Victoria?” She braced herself for the verbal assault that was about to come from her most prolific hater.

It was quite a shock when Victoria came right behind her, turned her around and gave Max a hug. _What the actual fuck Victoria._ She didn’t pull back, mostly because she didn’t know how to respond to Victoria’s sudden turn of affection.

When Victoria did finally pull back Max just stood there in shock.

“Well, you can say something Caulfield.”

“I, um… what was that about Victoria?”

Victoria rolled her eyes in response to Max’s question—despite having called Max hipster trash all this time, she knew Max wasn’t dumb.

“That was for being so determined that I needed to help Kate. I was already starting to feel like shit when I heard Nathan say he drugged her.” Victoria sighed as she moved to sit on Max’s unmade bed. “I talked to her, I stopped her like you said. You were right Max, she was going to do something horrible.”

Max nodded slowly to that. “Yeah, she was going to jump from the roof.”

Victoria’s eyes widened in response to Max’s statement. “How did you know?” She shook her head in disbelief that Max would know that detail.

Looking around awkwardly, Max didn’t know how to respond. “Well, um…” She took a deep breath. _There’s no way I can tell Victoria that I’ve already lived this day before, that I had seen Kate on that roof about to jump. She’d think I’m nuts._ “She’s my best friend here…” Max cringed at the thought.

“What’s wrong Max?” Victoria stood up, showing concern that Max had never seen before.

Max sighed and sat on her couch next to her guitar. “You don’t want to hear it Victoria.”

The look that crossed Victoria’s face was one that Max had known all too well, she finally had brought out Victoria’s bitch face.

“You know what, fuck you Max Caulfield. I come talk to you trying to extend an olive branch after what I imagine must have been a nightmare of a day for you, and to thank you for actually making me do the right thing, and you tell me that I don’t want to hear it? Ugh, this was a mistake, you don’t know anything about me. Go fuck your selfie Max.”

And with that Victoria stormed out of Max’s room.

Max stood there stunned. “Wowsers,” she said aloud.

_Dammit Max, you deserved that. What the hell were you thinking? I mean even at the party she admitted that she thought you were the coolest person at Blackwell._ She sighed and sat back on her couch, the tears welling up in her eyes. She hadn’t let herself cry since she left Blackwell and the thoughts of her best friend twice in just a few minutes pushed her over the edge.

The door swung back open suddenly. “And another thing Max, you…” Victoria started to lay into Max to find the shorter brunette crying. “Ah fuck me.” She sighed and tentatively approached Max. “I know you’ve had a rough day, I shouldn’t have reamed you like that.”

Max looked up at Victoria as large tears fell down her face. “It’s not you Victoria, I deserved that.” She looked back down, burying her head in her hands.

“Can we start over Max?”

“You mean this conversation?”

Victoria shook her head. “No Max. Let’s rewind this whole thing back to when we first met.” Max shivered as Victoria suggested they rewind, though if Victoria noticed it she didn’t react.

It didn’t stop Max’s tears, but she slowly nodded her head. “Okay,” she said quietly.

She didn’t see Victoria’s smile. “Alright Maxine, why are you crying?”

A sniffle. “Max, never Maxine.”

Victoria took a deep breath, her natural instinct to be bitchy threatening to overwhelm her. “Alright Max, what’s wrong?” she asked as she moved to sit on the couch next to Max.

“The girl who died was named Chloe.”

“Chloe Price?” Victoria asked.

“That’s right.”

“That’s who it was! She used to always hang around here with Rachel Amber.”

Max nodded, this was something she knew already. “Five years ago I used to live in Arcadia Bay. Chloe was my best friend. I left after her dad died and didn’t keep in touch.”

Victoria remained really quiet. “I didn’t know that Max. Do you know what happened yesterday?”

Another nod from the Brunette. “Nathan shot her. But in a way it wasn’t really his fault.”

Another deep breath combined with a sigh. “I was hoping that you wouldn’t say that. You know that Nathan and I are tight right?”

“I know Victoria. I know Nathan also had some stuff going on. He was also being manipulated.”

Victoria’s curiosity got piqued now. “Was it Mark? I mean Mr. Jefferson.”

“It was Victoria. Mark Jefferson is a really bad man.”

Victoria shook her head, it was something hard to believe. “What do you mean? How could he be a bad person, he’s a photography teacher at a tiny private academy.”

Max didn’t answer right away, she took several deep breaths and tried to wipe away tears before looking over at Victoria. “I can’t explain how I know, but I can tell you what I do know okay?”

“Alright Max, lay it on me.”

“Well,” Max started with a deep breath. “He drugs girls and takes pictures of them in their vulnerable state.”

Victoria laughed at that. She smiled and shook her head. “You’re funny Max. This was a great prank, you really had me believing.”

Max’s eyes bulged. “No Victoria, I’m serious. He has pictures of Rachel Amber tied up. Kate too. You were next.”

Victoria continued to laugh, but it died out quickly as she saw the same look of seriousness in Max’s eyes that had led her to her talk with Kate. “Holy shit, you’re serious aren’t you?”

“Yes Victoria. All the flirting with Jefferson, he had designs on getting you in his darkroom. I wouldn’t be shocked if the police eventually want to ask you if you knew anything.”

A look of fear was on Victoria’s face now. “I can’t believe, that’s, that’s…” Victoria fell silent—how does one respond to that.

“He kept the photos in red binders, yours was empty but I think he wanted you next.”

“How was Nathan involved?”

Max’s eyes darted around her bedroom. She remembered she still hadn’t plugged in her phone yet.

“Well, Nathan’s family got Mister Jefferson here, and I think that Jefferson manipulated Nathan into helping him, convincing him that he would bring him to glory. I don’t know.”

Another deep breath from Victoria. “Max, I don’t know how I feel about this. This whole thing feels so fantastical, like something like that could ever happen in Arcadia Bay. I kind of feel like I’m being played, which I probably deserve for being such a bitch to you all this time.”

“I swear Victoria, I’m not playing you.”

“You know Max, despite the fact that I come off so cold to you, I do actually care. Believe it or not…”

Max interrupted her, “you actually think that I’m the coolest person at Blackwell because I don’t care what people think about me when you’re so insecure about how people view you.”

Victoria’s jaw dropped. She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes. “How did you know that?” Victoria looked panicked, “I mean, that’s not what I was going to say.”

Max finally laughed a little bit. “Victoria, I know you feel the need to play the cold, controlling bitch, but I know that you’re way more talented than you give yourself credit for. I think you’ll be the next Richard Avedon.”

She was stunned. “Thank you Max.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, you’re right, I do think you’re much cooler than I let on. I wonder if we’re too…”

Victoria’s declaration was cut off as they heard a loud knocking outside. It wasn’t on Max’s door, but it was very close and loud. The two girls stood and went to the door and opened it. Standing outside Victoria’s door were two Arcadia Bay police officers. They looked at the two and one of them spoke. “Could you tell us where Victoria Chase might be?”

Victoria stepped forward, “I’m Victoria Chase.”

The officer nodded to her. “We would like to ask you a few questions Miss Chase.”

As the second officer turned to look at Victoria, both girls could see that in his hand he held a red binder with the name “Victoria” in an evidence bag. They both saw it and Victoria started shaking. Max put her hand on Victoria’s back. “If you need help Victoria…”

“Thanks Max,” Victoria said, her voice wavering now that Max’s talk of a red binder seemed prescient. “Is it okay?”

The officer nodded, “Yes, if you need support from Max that’s alright.”

Victoria looked confused that the officer knew who Max was.

“Yesterday was a long day Victoria, I met a lot of people.”

Victoria nodded and stepped out of Max’s room, reaching back and grabbing Max’s hand for support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed, kudos and comments as you desire. Thanks.


	7. Breaking the Triangle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max confronts Warren.

Max entered her room and promptly crawled onto her bed and collapsed. It was barely after one in the afternoon but Max was already exhausted from the day. She was still running on too little sleep mentally, but just as exhausting was Victoria.

Victoria. Wowsers, there was a girl who as Max got to know more she understood even less. She was with the tall blonde when the cops asked her some routine questions as they did their due diligence investigating Mark Jefferson.

They did indeed bring the red binder that Jefferson had written her name on. It was empty, but the cops wanted to know if Victoria and Jefferson ever talked outside of school. Victoria said she hadn’t, but Max knew that if things had continued on the path that she used to know that it would have happened.

Questions abounded about whether Jefferson ever asked any students to model for him, or if they had heard of anyone doing so. Both girls had shaken their head at the question. Max knew exactly what the cops were trying to establish—they wanted to know if pictures like the ones of Kate could have been by choice before approaching her, and find out if Victoria was going to be doing something.

Victoria was shaking the entire time throughout the questioning process. Max knew that she was probably thinking about what Max had just told her about Jefferson’s intentions and how close she probably came to finding herself drugged and photographed.

Afterward Victoria insisted that they go out for coffee and then lunch in that order. _Good grief, Victoria can sure talk when she wants to._ Max had a much clearer picture of her old enemy, one she never got when she still had her power to reverse time. Max had always thought that Victoria’s bitchiness was mostly a product of her self-esteem. To a point it was, but in reality it was much more complicated.

Courtney and Taylor had basically been slave one and slave two to Victoria since Max had arrived. As much as Victoria did do the nice things like help Taylor through when her mom had surgery, Victoria never seemed to truly treat them as equals, as friends. Max remembered how much bitching there was when Victoria found herself covered in paint at Max’s hand. Sure, Victoria was mad at the situation, but Max wondered if things would be all that different now.

Victoria was almost sickening with her sweetness towards Max. What just a few days before (both in reality and in Max’s warped perspective) Victoria was always criticizing Max’s twee hipster bullshit and her sad choice of clothing. Over lunch, which was Victoria’s treat, Max’s new friend gushed about how Max’s look was just too adorable, but that before a future Vortex Club party that she needed to take Max to Portland to go shopping.

Max laughed as he remembered that part of the conversation. She of course asked about Powell’s for books, and Victoria seemed to have to hold down the naturally practiced bitchiness, saying it was something to add to the list. Victoria had even gone so far as to suggest a future collaboration on a project—after all Victoria’s pictures were amazing from a technical standpoint but lacked a soul, whereas Max’s were messy and awkward but perfectly captured moments and seemed to transcend their polaroid medium into living, breathing art. Combined the two could be unstoppable in Victoria’s mind.

She closed her eyes on the bed when her phone beeped at her. _Oh shit, I forgot about that._ Max had left her phone plugged in and charging in her room during her time out with Victoria and the new message had finally reminded her. She picked up her phone and boggled at the text message number reading 257.

About thirty of them were from her parents completely freaking out that she hadn’t responded to them at all. She quickly texted back. **Sorry, phone died while at police station yesterday. Exhausted. I’ll call tonight. I’m okay, I promise.**

She glanced through the rest of them. Almost two dozen from Kate—some freaking out after Max was taken away from the school with the police, some telling her about Victoria’s sudden change of heart, and of course more checking that she was doing okay this morning. **Doing great Kate, my mate. Tea later, I’ll try not to be late.**

Kate apparently was on her phone as less than a minute later the response was **Really Max?**

Max had only one thing she could text back with: **Just wait, don’t hate. :o)**

Max scrolled through the names of the messages—lots of other people on the floor wondering if she was okay, trying to ask what happened, offering to be there. A few texts came from numbers she didn’t know claiming to be reporters wanting to interview her. _Oh great, it’s just like in the alternate timeline when they just wanted the story about Kate’s attempted suicide. Fucking vultures._

She kept scrolling up and finally saw the one that made her cringe—47 missed texts from Warren. A sigh escaped her lips. About ten of the messages she had seen already, a few requests for his flashdrive back, and then of course there were a shit ton of messages from him being concerned about her. Part of her wanted to block Warren—flashbacks to the nightmare and his locker played in her mind. She knew that wasn’t real, but if Warren wasn’t so obsessed with her.

Max took a deep breath and got up off her bed to head over to her computer. _Oh wait, Dana has the flash drive._

She looked at Lisa who was starting to look a little ragged and poured her bottle of water on the plant. _Just what I need, to kill my plant._

Putting the water back on the window sill she looked up and saw Warren peaking towards the dorms like he had in the alternate reality.

_Oh fuck me. Warren, you’re an idiot._ She knew there was only one thing she could do and she whipped out her phone. **I’ll meet you in the parking lot to give you back your flash drive and you can show off your new ride.**

She glanced up at the window after hitting send and saw Warren fist pump upon checking his phone. Another sigh escaped Max’s lips. _Warren, you’re such a great friend but seriously, people are going to just assume you’re totally creepy when you’re actually a nice guy._

Putting her phone in her pocket she headed out of her room.

Getting the flash drive back from Dana was much less painful this time around as Juliet wasn’t holding Dana hostage anymore. She grabbed it and promised to come back later to talk, but for now she had to return the movie stick and tell Warren off for freaking out on her so much. Dana offered to go along with Max but the brunette hipster declined. Max quickly made her way out of the dorm.

\---

Brooke stood outside the dorms playing with her drone when her phone beeped that she had received a text message.

**If you maneuver your drone to watch the parking lot you might get your chance with Warren. Max is totally pissed off at him and heading his way. –CC**

She stared at the message, unsure of what to do with it but indeed almost as if on cue she saw Max exit the dorm heading towards the main grounds, and Max didn’t look happy. A small smile crossed Brooke’s face and she quickly started walking herself.

\---

A few minutes later Max reached the parking lot and Warren was there standing by his new ride. Warren outstretched his arms calling out, “Hey Maximus Prime, the Super Max with the pulse of the school.”

Just like before Max was having none of the hug as she held out the flash drive. Both of them seemed oblivious to the drone hovering near them.

“Warren, we need to talk.”

“Uh oh, I don’t like the sound of that. How about we do it on the way to a drive in? Planet of the Apes is playing.”

Max sighed and shook her head. “Warren, did you know that when I finally checked my phone half an hour ago that I had forty-seven missed text messages?”

“Haha, I was right about Maximus Prime being popular around here.”

A major shake of her head, “No Warren, I don’t mean total. I mean from you.”

Warren looked like a deer in headlights—it was a rather new experience for Max to see this and she slightly enjoyed it. _Shit, is Victoria rubbing off on me already?_

“I um, I can explain that. You see Max…”

Max held up her left hand to cut him off. When he stopped Max nearly freaked out for a second but then realized that it was purely her own control over Warren, not her time travel powers that drove his reaction.

“Look Warren, you’re not going to want to hear this, but I think you should.”

Warren was already looking a bit hurt, he knew what was coming it seemed.

“Warren, you are absolutely the nicest, funniest, and sweetest guy I have ever known.” Warren expectedly perked up at this. “But I’m sorry to say that I see you more as the brother I never had. I don’t have the feelings for you that I know you have for me.”

He shook his head, “What are you talking about Super Max? I don’t have any…”

She held her hand up again. As she started to speak again she smiled. “We both know you do Warren. And seriously, you are a great guy, but you deserve someone who would return your affections. I don’t know if I could make it through this school year if we weren’t friends, especially with what my life has been for the past week.”

Warren was breathing deeply, she knew how hard it was for him to hear this, but she also knew how important it would be for the future that he did.

“I know you already asked Brooke to go to the drive in with you, and that if I said yes you were going to cancel on her.”

He coughed. “Max, how did you know?”

“Does it really matter Warren? Don’t be that guy, seriously. How do you feel about Brooke?”

“I, uh, well…”

“Come on Warren, out with it.”

Warren sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Brooke’s amazing, by far the only person at this school who can keep up with me in the science department. I mean she’s wicked smart, cute, and fun to be around.”

Max quirked her eyebrows at this. “Um Warren, it sounds like you already kind of like Brooke. What’s the big deal?”

“I, um. I think Brooke is out of my league.”

Max STARED at Warren.

He looked around. “Do I have something in my hair?”

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WARREN?”

He stepped backward into his car in response to Max yelling at him.

“Brooke is absolutely crazy about you. She’s always talking about how she wants to do science projects with you and how you two would be perfect together. How could she be out of your league when the girl is probably ready to eliminate me to get you to focus on her.”

Warren laughed. “You can’t be serious Max. She doesn’t see me like that. I don’t know that I could keep her happy, she’s just on another level.”

Max smacked her forehead with her palm. “Warren, I’m going to prove you wrong, and ignore the fact that you just made it sound like you’re only crushing on me because I’d be easier to be with.”

Warren’s face reddened once he realized that’s the implication he had been making.

Max pulled out her phone, dialed a number, and put it on speaker, placing a finger to her lips—the universal signal for silence.

\---

Brooke wasn’t sure how to feel about what she had been witnessing through the drone. She expected Max to rip into Warren but Max was actually pretty sweet in her letting him down. Her curiosity got the better of her as Max promised to prove that Warren was being dumb. Suddenly her phone rang—Max Caulfield on the Caller ID.

“Uh, hi Max.”

Max’s voice came through on the phone a little different than normal. “Hey Brooke. I was wondering if you have a moment to talk.” Brooke looked at the drone footage and saw that Max’s body language wasn’t that of her normal self. _Is Max putting on a show for Warren?_

“Uh, sure.”

“So I like totally know that you’re into Warren, but with him crushing on me it’s kind of fun having him chase after me like a lost puppy. I don’t suppose you have any tips for helping to string him along.”

Brooke remained quiet staring at her drone footage. _What are you playing at Max? I’ll try to follow your lead._

“Bitch! Why would you do that to Warren, he’s so much better than you and deserves a girl like me who is really into him, not someone who intends to just play him.”

“Oh-em-gee, you totally do like him don’t you?”

“Max, if you just called to taunt me because Warren is content with dumpster diving when he could be eating with kings then you can just fuck off.”

“What if I could get you a real date with Warren?”

Brooke paused at that. She wasn’t sure if she was still following Max’s plan, but she had to give it a shot.

“I’m listening.”

\---

_Seriously Max?_ Warren found himself dumbfounded at the phone call with Brooke. _Those two do not get along, but wow, Brooke really does like me?_

Max muted the phone. “Two Whales alright, tonight for dinner?”

He stared at Max. “Hell yeah. If you can make this happen you’ll be my own personal super hero Max.”

Max smiled sweetly at him and unmuted the call.

\---

Brooke continued to watch and hear the entire conversation from the other side even as the phone was muted thanks to the power of the drone.

“Alright Brooke, this is how it’s going to work. I’m going to tell Warren I’m going to meet him for dinner at seven at Two Whales. I’m not going. At 7:30 you’re going to come in, find him distraught that I stood him up and you’re going to have dinner with him instead. You two will talk science, photography, drones, whatever it is that you two would talk about until it’s closing time, or at least until Warren has forgotten why he was there in the first place. Am I clear?”

A few deep breaths from Brooke as she thought it over. _Max, this is dumb, I don’t want to see Warren hurt. Wait a second, he knows of the plan, you’re standing there telling him of the plan. You clever bitch, I think Victoria needs to watch out, there’s a dark horse candidate for manipulator of the year here._

“Yeah Max, I got it. But you do realize that in response I’m going to have to be a bitch to you for a while.”

“Well yeah Brooke, gotta protect your man. Go get yourself ready and have fun tonight.”

_This would have made me feel like shit if Warren was there under false pretenses, but he knows. Fuck it, let’s do this._

“I will. Bye Max.”

Brooke hung up the call and focused on the drone once more.

\---

“Go get yourself ready, you’re going on a date with the real girl of your dreams, not the one that just is in front of you.”

Warren remained stunned at the turn of events. “I don’t even know what to say Max.”

Max stepped close and actually gave Warren the hug he was trying to get earlier. “Be yourself. Brooke likes you, she really does. And yes I did re-watch Spider-Man on your thumb drive, so go get ‘em tiger.”

Warren groans a little bit and Max takes that as her cue to leave.

\---

**Hey Max, that’s really cool of you. Why would you do that?**

Max immediately knew it was Brooke.

**Because he’s a great guy who deserves what he really wants, and you’re a great girl who shouldn’t have to watch the guy she likes chase after someone else when he truly wants you.**

**I don’t know what to say Max.**

**You don’t have to. Tell me about the date tomorrow.**

**Will do.**

\---

Once her text conversation with Brooke was over Max was back at her dorms when she received another text message, this time from Joyce.

**Hey darlin’, we didn’t get to really talk yesterday. You should come by the Two Whales, I have something for you.**

Max took a deep breath and waited until she got back to her room to respond. She knew this would have to happen sooner or later. She wasn’t ready to face Joyce yet—not today at least.

**I can probably come by tomorrow.**

Her breathing slowed as she waited for a response from Chloe’s mom.

**Great! See you tomorrow!**

And with the confrontation averted, Max decided it was time for a shower—she had a tea date later after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for Chapter 8: No Peace in a Dark Room


	8. No Peace in a Dark Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max finds herself back in the dark room. TRIGGER WARNING, SEE NOTES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter starts out dark. For some people it could also be a trigger. The dark part will end after the first line put in the middle of the story--If you're not sure you want to read that part you can scroll to the line break and continue on for the rest of the character development. I fully acknowledge that I might lose some people at this chapter... but I do hope that the chapter in general is well received.

Max felt groggy, out of it as she opened her eyes to a bright light. She felt cold, but when she started to shiver she found that she couldn’t move her arms or legs. Shaking her head she looked down at her hands which were taped to the chair she was sitting in—the all too familiar duct tape that she had gotten used to in the dark room.

_What’s going on?_

Max tried to survey her surroundings more but didn’t see anything other than the bright light that appeared to shine in her eyes. She looked down more to see her exact predicament and found herself screaming loud enough to wake the dead. Max found herself duct taped to the chair wearing only a pink bra and white panties.

It was only too coincidental that it’s at this point that Mark Jefferson appears in front of Max, snapping several pictures of the scared girl.

“YOU!” she said loudly, looking at him.

Jefferson smiled brightly at him. “Oh come now Max, you didn’t think your little heroics with busting Nathan and getting me arrested would save you from the dark room, did you?”

Max closed her eyes and dropped her face. She could see the flash of light from another picture. When she opened her eyes again she could see the dark room as clear as the last time she was in it.

“There we go, that’s the moment I’m looking for. The loss of innocence, the loss of hope. It’s all very beautiful Max, don’t you agree.”

Her eyes narrow as she scowls at him. “Fuck you Jefferson!”

He laughed at her and snapped more pictures. “Come now Max, all the range of emotions you’re feeling can only lead you to one place, you know that. Keep up the work, you’re giving me everything I need.”

Max fought back the only way she could, she turned her head away from him to ruin his shots. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him set the camera down and walk away.

She heard nothing for a whole minute until she realized that Jefferson was now behind her. “You know Max, if you don’t want to cooperate then perhaps you can use a little liquid persuasion.”

She screamed and blacked out as the needle was pushed into her neck once more.

…

Her eyes opened once more, she felt the pressure on her right side and realized that she was out of the chair and back on the ground. She lifted her head to look down seeing her clothes hadn’t changed. _Get out of here Max, he’s already taken some clothes, how much further will he go? You saw the picture with Nathan and Rachel. Just go, try, move!_

Max tried to move but found that save for her head she couldn’t.

“Please, someone help,” she pleaded as tears started falling from her eyes.

Footsteps told her that he was back.

“I see sleeping beauty has awoken. But I believe she was supposed to receive a kiss from Prince Charming to break the spell.”

Max just looked around as Jefferson came closer—her body paralyzed with both drugs and fear. Jefferson reached down and flipped her onto her back before lying next to her. In his hand he didn’t have his normal camera but her Polaroid.

“Now Max, I believe you always take a selfie when you wake up?”

His face was only inches from hers. “Didn’t you hear me the first time, I said fuck you!”

The smirk that crossed Jefferson’s face worried Max greatly. “That’s such a great idea Max. If I’m not mistaken you’re a Virgin right? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re a real woman before you go join Rachel and Chloe.”

Jefferson leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers. A snap of bright light and the most bloodcurdling scream Max could muster exploded from her mouth…

* * *

 

Max felt a sting on her face and heard another girl scream and immediately bolted upright, her breath shallow and her body shaking. As she managed to get her bearings, she looked around and saw she was back in her dorm room, the lights were on, and there were two people in the room with her, Kate and Victoria.

Kate for her part was standing a few feet away with her hands covering her mouth as if she had just seen the most shocking thing ever (though admittedly for Kate that could be the picture of a shirtless man). Victoria had a hand on Max’s shoulders. Max reached up to where the sting was in her face and realized she’d just been slapped.

“Maxine, are you with us?” Victoria asked in a very worried voice.

Max took her first deep breath. “Max, never Maxine.”

Victoria released Max and pulled away, sighing as she said, “Yup, she’s back.” Even though Victoria looked exasperated, she also look highly relieved.

“Um, what’s going on?” Max asked to the two girls in her room.

Kate chimed in this time. “You’ve been screaming Max, like loudly and a lot.”

“Screaming?”

“Most of the floor is awake now, you were screaming loud enough that even Dana was hearing it.”

“Oh,” Max said, looking around and turning red with embarrassment.

“What’s wrong Max, what’s going on?” Victoria asked, the concern still very evident.

“Uh, nightmare.”

Victoria just stared at Max. “That’s some nightmare Caulfield. Care to share?”

Max sat silent for a minute. “It just didn’t make any sense, I don’t even know how to describe it. I’m not even sure what happened in it anymore.” This was a lie, Max remembered every horrid detail her mind just put her through.

Victoria didn’t buy it. She looked over to Kate and asked, “You believe her?”

Kate shook her head, “Not a word of it. But if Max doesn’t want to talk about it, we can’t force her.”

“Well yeah we can’t force her, but I don’t want to see if this is going to be something that happens again and again.”

Max piped up, “Well, it had to do with what just happened.”

Victoria narrowed her own eyes as she examined Max, hoping her vision could pierce right through the hipster. “I wonder…”

“Wonder what Victoria?” Max asked as she tilted her head in the blonde’s direction.

“You just experienced a traumatic event, watching someone get killed like that.”

Max took a deep breath. _Wow, Victoria has no idea how right she is but how so far off the mark she is either._

“I wonder,” Victoria continued, “Why you didn’t have nightmares last night.”

“I think I know,” Kate responded a little more awake to the situation now.”

Victoria turned to look at Kate. When Kate didn’t move or react Victoria held up her hands in a ‘what’s the deal?’ gesture.

“Oh, well, Max stayed in my room last night and she did start to stir and get antsy, but I would always squeeze her hand and she seemed to calm down. Maybe cuddling makes it go away?”

“That is the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard,” Victoria said with a louder voice before pausing and tilting her own head to the side in thought. “Fuck! Sorry Kate, you’re probably right. I mean a calming influence certainly helps.”

Kate nods, “Yeah, Max seemed more like herself when we went on our tea date earlier, though some of her actions have still been a little weird.”

Max rejoined the conversation. “I’m sorry about that Kate. There’s just certain things that seem to be setting me off today. You know you’ve done nothing wrong bun-bun.”

Victoria looked at Kate once more, seeing the good Christian girl turn red. A look back to Max, “Bun-bun, seriously? Next you’re going to be calling me Vicky aren’t you?”

Max smiled and shook her head, “I’m thinking Tori actually.”

Victoria rolled her eyes and Max was glad to see Victoria showing some of her normal habits as opposed to this creepy niceness about her.

“You’re the worst. Anyway that doesn’t matter, it’s settled then.”

Both Max and Kate looked at Victoria confused. Kate asked, “What’s settled Victoria?”

“Easy Kate. Whenever Max is sleeping we don’t leave her alone, at least not yet, we can see what happens in a few days.”

“OH!” Kate said a little too excitedly, “Like nightly sleepovers.”

Victoria took a deep breath before nodding. “Something like that. Anyway, let’s do this in shifts. If we have to be uncomfortable keeping Max from freaking the fuck out like what she was just doing, then only one of us should suffer each night. You say Max stayed in your bed last night?”

Kate nodded to that. “She did, yes.”

Another nod from Victoria. “Fine, I’ll stay with her tonight and you can have tomorrow night.”

Max’s eyes darted between Victoria and Kate. “I’m not following.”

“You see Max,” Kate explained, “since you seem to not have nightmares when cuddling with someone, every night for at least a few nights, probably what, Friday?”

Victoria nodded her head.

“Right, every night one of us will cuddle with you in bed to fight the nightmares off.”

Max found herself just staring in disbelief at Kate. “You’ve got to be shitting me?”

Kate and Victoria were both shaking their heads.

Victoria in a much more matter-of-fact tone asked, “You going to be okay with this Max?”

Max surveyed Victoria once more, “Do I really have a choice?”

“No!” Kate replied very eagerly.

_Who would have seen that coming Max, both Victoria and Kate being in full agreement on something._

Letting out an exasperated sigh Max nodded and said, “Go ahead.”

Kate jumped up and down clapping.

“Kate, if you could get the light on your way out?” Victoria asked nicely.

Kate nodded and started to make her way out of the room.

“Move over and lay on your side Caulfield, there’s no fucking way I’m playing little spoon to you.”

Max complied, and before she could even think of some snappy response Victoria’s arms wrapped around her waist and Max was fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never experienced PTSD, but in looking up information about nightmares I found that often it's not an exact mental recreation of the event. Since it would never have made it published, Dontnod had to keep to it that Jefferson was only taking pictures, nothing more. The dream preyed upon Max's fear that he would have done more.
> 
> Also, next chapter may be a few days, this was a rough one to write.


	9. Changing of the Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast doesn't go so well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needed something a lot lighter after chapter 8. It's short but I hope you enjoy.

Max sat down at the cafeteria table with a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice. Her two table companions each had a different reaction—Kate seemed glad that Max was back but Victoria just scowled at Max.

Victoria—now there was a subject that was just downright confusing for Max at the moment. After spending the whole week with Chloe and basically figuring that Victoria hated her, somehow with Chloe being gone Victoria was now her friend.

As she thought about it there was some sense to it. In the alternate reality created when she looked into the picture that William took she seemed to be friends with Victoria. _More like Victoria idolized me_ , Max thought. She started to wonder if for some crazy messed up reason she could only be friends with Chloe or Victoria, never both.

The last two nights had felt weird for Max—Cuddling with Kate the first night and then with Victoria last night. The second surprised her much more than the first, especially the fact that Victoria seemed to hold Max tight throughout the night. It was her first time being held like that by someone else and it felt odd, but nice. The one thing Max found herself truly enjoying about it is how it seemed like Victoria was being territorial and holding her close to serve as protection.

But anyway Victoria was once again glaring at Max.

“What?” Max asked, eyes darting back and forth between Victoria and Kate.

“Oatmeal and orange juice? That’s all you’re going to have for breakfast?”

“I’m trying not to fill myself up too much. I’m going out later to the Two Whales. Joyce, er, Chloe’s mom asked me to come see her and promised me a good meal.”

“Are you ready to talk to her?” Kate asked with concern in her voice while Victoria continued to scrutinize Max.

Max shrugged her shoulders. “It needs to happen sometime so I don’t see why not today.”

Even Kate didn’t look convinced by this answer, but she let the matter drop when Victoria suddenly exclaimed, “Those bitches!”

Max turned around to see what it was that earned Victoria’s ire, and she was surprised to see it was Taylor and Courtney putting up Vortex Club party posters. It seemed even with Victoria’s sudden change of heart the End of the World party was still on.

Victoria stood up and started heading to her two best friends. Max and Kate weren’t sure what to do and breakfast all but forgotten they got up and followed as well.

“What do you think you two are doing?” Victoria asked rather loudly at the two girls.

“We’re preparing for a killer Vortex Club party, what does it look like?” Taylor responded matter-of-factly.

“Nathan’s in Jail, a teacher has been arrested, classes cancelled for the week, someone was murdered here and most importantly, this party was cancelled.”

Taylor shrugged at that. “I uncancelled it.”

Victoria turned red with anger. “You can’t uncancel it, I am Vortex Club.”

Courtney laughed, “Sorry Victoria, Taylor decided to make a power play. You’ve been too busy associating with hipster trash and the church slut to notice what’s going on around here.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “You two have no idea what’s really been going on around here, do you? It’s time to realize some things are way more important than a party the night before a funeral.”

“Give it up Victoria,” Taylor responded. “You’re just pissed Nathan got busted and can’t supply us with the good shit anymore. Vortex club is bigger than one person and we’re not cancelling. Now, if you’d like to be left off the VIP list that can be arranged.”

Victoria scowled some more and turned to head back to Max and Kate, not expecting that they were right behind her.

“Come along Marsh and Caulfield, I’ll take you to the two whales and we can wait for you outside. I just don’t want to be here right now.”

Max stared at Victoria in surprise and fell in line. _Did Kate and I just become the new Taylor and Courtney?_


	10. Why She Stays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria and Kate have a bonding session while Max talks to Joyce and David.

Kate had been to the Two Whales before, but all of her previous trips there included rides on the bus system that Blackwell ran to allow students to get to places in town—it was always a horrible schedule and led to lots of sitting around on a school bus or on a bench waiting. However for once she was excited to get to feel the wind in her hair as she sat in the front seat of Victoria’s BMW Convertible.

She looked over to see Victoria still looking rather unhappy about the encounter she just had with her friends, and back behind her to see Max spacing out in the seat directly behind Victoria.

“Isn’t this wonderful Max. I’ve never been in a BMW, or a Convertible before. You?”

Max seemed distracted as the car made its way to the main road. Kate looked at her rather concerned for a moment before Max looked over and finally responded. “Oh, same here.”

What Kate noticed and that Max didn’t is that Victoria’s eyes seemed to be consistently glued to her rearview mirror, and they seemed to be in that scrutinizing mood that Victoria had been in all morning. Despite her excitement she just closed her eyes and felt the cold breeze against her skin. _It was so nice of Victoria to let us ride with the top down even though it’s October. But I think the heater will be mandatory on the way back._

The rest of the ride to the diner was in silence. Max seemed to perk up as they approached, but still said nothing. Victoria parked the car and hit the button to close the top. “What do you need us to do Max?”

“Um, wait for me?” Max said hesitantly. “When that I need to do is done then I’ll text you and we can have lunch or something.”

“More like brunch since our breakfast was so rudely interrupted,” Victoria grumbled.

Max seemed to miss it or ignore it, Kate wasn’t sure which, as she got out of the car.

The door shut and Victoria and Kate waited alone. Kate looked over to Victoria a bit nervously.

“What is it Kate?”

“The way you’re staring at Max, Victoria. What’s up with that?”

Victoria sighed and reclined her seat back. “I’m worried about Max. She’s hiding something from us.”

Kate took Victoria’s reclining in her seat as an invitation that she could do so as well. She let out a little yelp as it went back, but once she was reclined she looked over at Victoria and sighed as well. “I think you’re right.”

Victoria arched an eyebrow as she looked at the top of her car. “I didn’t expect that you’d agree with me.”

“Why? I think you are right. Max has certainly not been herself. She’s not really talked with me about what happened that day and why she seems so affected by it.”

Victoria turned her head to look at Kate now. “She’s not said a word about it?”

“Nothing.”

“Me neither.”

The two of them sat in the car quietly for a few minutes before Kate spoke again. “I’m sorry Victoria.”

Victoria sat up and turned to look at Kate with confusion all over her face. “What do you have to be sorry about?”

“That Max and I am costing you friendships and costing you Vortex Club, I know how much it meant to you.”

Victoria laughed and settled back into the reclined seat. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I wouldn’t be any place but here.”

“Why?” Kate asked, sounding bolder. “I mean I know you felt bad for how your actions were causing me to think such dark thoughts. But you didn’t need to stay for my sake, and I’m sure Max is just as surprised.”

Victoria took a deep breath but didn’t respond.

Kate frowned. _Aww crap, I pissed her off._

“You ever have a moment that forces you to re-evaluate everything that you are and have been?”

Kate couldn’t help but laugh at that. _You gave it to me Victoria with that video._ “Yeah,” she responded quietly.

“That moment was Monday for me. All those things I told you were true, I am an insecure little bitch who makes herself feel better by making everyone around her feel shitty. I’ve been the so-called Queen of Blackwell, but I’m really its biggest asshole.”

“That doesn’t explain,” Kate said before being cut off.

“Three things happened Monday Kate. First Nathan killed someone. When he was babbling as he came out of the school about drugging you I felt so shitty I deleted the video on the spot. Then Max, for all her aloofness and not giving a shit what people think about her, was the most serious I’ve ever seen her when she told me I needed to stop you.”

“Right, you told me that.”

“And the third was I found out that you were actually contemplating suicide. I don’t know if I could have handled it if you had actually tried, or even succeeded in taking your own life. I know I would have felt responsible for it, and would have been responsible. I want to be a famous photographer, not famous for driving a classmate to suicide.”

Kate remained quiet this time.

“In that moment I realized that well, I had to act like a human being if I wanted to change my legacy.”

“But Victoria, you’re only eighteen years old,” Kate said in a comforting tone.

“That doesn’t mean that my legacy can’t be affected by my actions now. The art world is a rough business, it’s kill or be killed, and I figured by shutting out everything and everyone who could be a threat to me I could have that fearless killer attitude it takes to make it. You and Max were threats, Courtney and Taylor weren’t.”

A loud giggle erupted from Kate. “Me, a threat, you’ve got to be kidding me Victoria.”

“I’m not. Your pictures convey a sense of small town life, a slice of Americana. Your pictures remind me of Norman Rockwell paintings, and that’s the highest compliment I think I could give Kate. A teenage female Norman Rockwell photographer could take the art world by storm.”

Kate started tearing up. “Wow, thank you Victoria, I don’t know what to say that you think so highly of my work.”

“And Max,” Victoria continued, not responding to Kate’s thank you, “sure she takes a whole bunch of selfies with her retro camera, but admittedly so do I with my phone. Her pictures have a life and an energy to them that I don’t have at all in my pictures. As much as I talked a big game about winning the Everyday Heroes contest, I was freaked out that Max would have entered something.”

“I see. So why do you stay instead of going back to your friends?”

A long, drawn out sigh escaped Victoria’s lips. “There’s just something about everything that’s going on at Blackwell that tells me that I’m making the right choice. I don’t have to have my armor up around you and Max. For the first time since I was little I kind of feel that I can just be myself, it’s always taken lots of alcohol or drugs to make me feel that kind of freedom. I like experiencing it sober.”

“You know, if we’re not cool enough for you—“

“KATE!” Victoria shot up once more, “Don’t you get it. You’re what I need. You don’t judge people for any reason, for someone religious, you’re probably about the most chill person I know. And with Max, she just cares so little about what people think of her that I feel I can be myself and she won’t care either. I don’t know how I classify you two quite yet. I’m not sure if friends is the right word, but in this new world and with this new Victoria Chase, you two are who I need to be around.”

Victoria remained sitting up waiting to see how Kate would respond.

“Oh alright, I guess you’re cool enough to hang with me and Max.”

Victoria smiled and laid back once more. “You have no idea how comforting that is to hear. And Kate, I know I said we’d trade off making sure that Max is taken care of, but I think I’ll stay with her again tonight if that’s alright.”

Kate nodded though she looked curious. She didn’t pursue it any further. _Bad Kate, thinking that Victoria is up to something instead of just wanting to help._

Several more minutes passed in silence before both girls phones went off.

“Wow!” Kate exclaimed, “We’ve been here for an hour already.”

“About time Max, I was getting hungry.”

Kate put her seat upright and got out of the car. “Coming Victoria?”

“Yeah, just a second,” Victoria replied, looking as though she was checking her makeup in the mirror.

Victoria looked once more at the text message from Max and exited to the main menu. She scrolled down to her deleted text messages and pulled up the one from the unknown number.

**You’ll find answers in Max’s room in the morning. --CC**


	11. Out of Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “People like you are the reason I have to be bitchy all the time. I tried being real to you, honest, letting down my guard with you and you betray me. I thought I could trust you Max, but you’re the worst of all of them," Victoria said, tears streaming harder and harder down her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of two chapters I've really been looking forward to writing since I started it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

*WHAM*

Max let out a gasp of air as the pillow hit her stomach hard—she wasn’t awake yet, but in a moment she would be.

*WHAM*

*WHAM*

Two more hits of the pillow before Victoria said what was on her mind. “You fucking bitch Max Caulfield, how dare you?”

More hits were attempted but Max was awake enough now to try to fend herself off from the vicious attack Victoria was throwing at her out of seemingly nowhere. Grabbing the pillow as Victoria took another swing, Max finally was able to say a coherent thought.

“What the fuck Victoria?”

When Max actually looked up she could see that Victoria was crying. A few more tugs at the pillow before Victoria let it go and sank into Max’s couch.

“People like you are the reason I have to be bitchy all the time. I tried being real to you, honest, letting down my guard with you and you fucking betray me. I thought I could trust you Max, but you’re the worst of all of them,” Victoria said, tears streaming harder and harder down her face.

Max looked at the tall blonde with a blank stare of confusion. “I’ve never betrayed you Victoria.”

“Bullshit Max, I know you did. Gawd, I feel like such a loser right now. Taylor was right all along.”

Max hesitated for a moment but she set the pillow she was still holding aside and crawled down off her bed to approach Victoria slowly.

“What did I do Victoria? I don’t even know what’s make you flip out.”

“Yeah right Max,” Victoria said, not looking at the hipster brunette.

_You’re such an idiot Victoria. Letting Max get to you like this. I mean who the hell does she think she is that she could steal from you and then act like nothing is wrong. I know she acts all aloof but there is something conniving about her._

Max continued moving to sit on the couch with Victoria. “I’m here. Tell me what you think I did and if I’m guilty you can beat the shit out of me, but I swear I didn’t do anything that should make you react like this.”

Victoria sighed and glared at Max. “You’ve been hiding stuff from Kate and me Max. Kate and I know that there’s parts of your story that don’t add up, and you have the audacity to do what you did and still tell me you didn’t do anything.”

She heard several deep breaths from Max. “You’re right Victoria, there’s stuff I haven’t talked about yet, but I don’t even know how to put it into words let alone convey it to someone who had suicidal thoughts, or someone who just a few days ago seemed to hate my guts.”

The glaring continued. “That may be well and true Max, and I can understand that you aren’t ready to talk about the last few days yet, but what about the stealing?”

This seemed to catch Max off guard. “I’ve not stolen anything Victoria.”

Victoria got up off the couch and went over to Max’s bad on her desk. “I was looking through this while you were still sleeping…”

“WHAT?” Max said, looking a little mad.

“Don’t you what me you little lying, backstabbing thief.” Victoria reached her hand into the bag and pulled out her gold bracelet that she always wore.

Max looked at Victoria still a little confused.

“Don’t give me that look Max,” Victoria said, her voice close to breaking as more tears started falling. “I got this gold bracelet from my grandpa Chase for my sixteenth birthday, a week before he passed away. It used to belong to his mother, and then my grandma.”

“That’s not what you think it is Victoria.”

“Bullshit Max. My grandpa even had it engraved for me, and it has all the little nicks and dings on it.” The tears were fully flowing at this point. “And you sit there and lie to me, saying it’s not mine when it has my name on it. You’ve seen it before Max, how can you betray me like this when you know I always wear it,” Victoria lifted her right arm to show max, “on this fu…”

Victoria paused.

“king… wrist.”

_How?_

Max looked confused by Victoria’s sudden freezing up until she saw it too.

_How is that possible?_

In Victoria’s left hand was her one-of-a-kind gold bracelet she pulled out of Max’s bag. On her right wrist was the exact same one-of-a-kind gold bracelet that had started this whole screaming fest. Max stood up and rushed to Victoria, helping the taller girl back to the couch as she looked ready to faint. When Victoria was seated on the couch once more she looked up at Max, no longer mad but definitely scared. “Max, what’s going on? How can my bracelet be both on me and in your bag?”

Max sighed the longest sigh of her life. “It’s a long, complicated, confusing story Victoria, are you sure you’re ready to know it?”

Victoria looked more scared, perhaps even more so than she had in the darkroom. She nodded slightly, just enough that if Max didn’t catch it then she could pretend she hadn’t.

Max went back over to her bag and grabbed out her journal and held it out for Victoria.

_Why is she giving me this?_

As if she were reading Victoria’s mind, Max said, “Read it. And don’t judge, when I wrote all that stuff about you and everyone else it was a lifetime ago.”

Victoria started to read the diary, and chose to look up and ask questions at various points.

\---

“In your journal it says that you stopped Nathan from shooting Chloe, so why is she dead?”

“Just keep reading Victoria.”

\---

“You seriously spilled paint on me and got me to apologize to you?”

Max actually managed a sheepish grin at that.

\---

When Victoria got to the part about Kate’s suicide she looked up with tears in her eyes.

“You saw her jump?”

Max took a deep breath and nodded. “I couldn’t let it happen again, and I didn’t know if I’d make it back to Blackwell in time to save her.”

_You poor thing._

“How did I react?”

“Your façade broke Victoria. You felt horrible and that you might have had something to do with it. Well, when you weren’t on Facebook blaming me for failing so save her.

Victoria winced at that. “I’m sorry Max.”

“I know.”

\---

“You know Max, I’m kind of ashamed that I went to such lengths just to try and win some stupid contest. I mean even now I can’t say it’s another Victoria that did it because I would have done it. I was starting to do it before the bathroom incident.”

\---

“Max, how would you define our friendship after things changed and you were a member of the Vortex Club?”

Max hesitated, “You won’t get mad at me?”

Victoria shook her head.

“Well, you know how Taylor and Courtney look, well, looked to you?”

A simple nod from the blonde.

“It was kind of like that. I was the queen bee and you wanted to make me happy.”

Victoria quirked an eyebrow at Max. _Like in what way?_

“I don’t know how else to describe it Victoria, I spent almost no time around the alternate you.”

\---

Once Victoria let the matter drop she went back to reading. Max moved to sit on her bed and hugged her one-eyed teddy bear. It was quite a while before Victoria spoke up again, though as she read she would occasionally just glance up at Max, or even a few times glance up at Max looking all sad. Max could probably guess which times these were.

“Aww, you warned me and were glad that we seemed to be getting along,” Victoria said feeling a little bit better at the situation.

“Yeah…” Max said and left it at that.

Victoria kept on reading and gasping, and reading, and gasping. Tear filled eyes could steal glances at Max who just remained on the bed the bear getting squeezed tighter and tighter.

An audible sob told Max that Victoria had read about Jefferson murdering her. Victoria got to the end and closed the journal.

“What’s the end of the story Max?”

Max’s own eyes started to water, she knew that this moment would come.

“Chloe said there was only one solution to stop the storm, and that was that she needed to die.”

A sharp gasp from Victoria.

“We said our goodbyes and I looked into the butterfly photograph and sat in the bathroom doing nothing as Nathan murdered Chloe. Everything else you know.”

Victoria was downright shaking as she stood up from the couch. _This is so unbelievable, but I’ve been with Max this whole time—these are pictures of things that never happened and everything seems to fit what I know to be true. I can’t say for sure that this is completely real but it makes all too much sense. Poor Max, no wonder she’s having nightmares. At least I can finally tell Kate._

“Victoria?”

“Yeah Max,” Victoria said, her voice quivering to match her body’s shaking.

“You can’t tell Kate, not yet.”

“Alright.” A pause. “Max?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I give you a hug?”

Max laughed a little, “Sure Victoria.”

And Victoria crawled up on Max’s bed and wrapped her arms tightly around the tiny hipster.

_You’ve been through so much Max, I just want to protect you from the world! I never want you to go back to that dark room again._

Victoria just hugged tighter, hoping that Max felt comfort in her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos, comments, critiques, all are welcome!


	12. Enter the Vortex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A much less apocalyptic End of the World party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An extra long chapter for the holiday.

Max felt numb after the long day that had already been. Her day starting getting attacked by Victoria certainly didn’t help anything, but that wasn’t the hardest part of the morning. Even when Victoria accused her of theft and learned that things were much darker than she could have expected. Victoria now knew the truth, that it was Max’s fault that Chloe was dead.

Well, that wasn’t quite accurate. Victoria now knew that Max at one point had rewind powers, and that she had lived this entire week before. That wasn’t quite accurate either. Max had lived a version of this week where Kate committed suicide, and Mark Jefferson drugged Max and murdered Chloe, Victoria, and Nathan. Oh, and there was a giant tornado that was trying to wipe out Arcadia Bay.

Max knew that Victoria struggled with trying to accept everything that was going on, but the evidence was overwhelming. Max knew that Kate was thinking about jumping. Max had Victoria’s bracelet. Max knew about what Jefferson planned. Even a news report this morning confirmed that the body of Rachel Amber was found exactly where Max’s journal said it was.

After Victoria had read the diary she just wanted to hold Max, and that she did. Max figured that Victoria had hugged her for about an hour before Max finally had to ask for some breathing room. It also helped that Max had received a text from Joyce inviting her over to the diner for breakfast and to give her something.

Victoria had offered to drive Max there but Max chose to take the bus, she needed a little bit of alone time given that she was pretty much surrounded by either Victoria or Kate the entire time. When she had left the dorm she heard some of the girls commenting about Max being alone, but she tuned it out with the help of her headphones and some Syd Matters.

Breakfast was good, although Max kept thinking back to her conversation with Joyce and David the day before. She had sort of lied to them about Chloe, said that she’d actually had a chance to speak with her but that they kept it quiet. She told David it wasn’t his fault Chloe died, and that as much as she hated him she was warming up to him—after all he had made Joyce happy and allowed her to move on. Max told her Chloe still wanted to blame everyone else for her life (Max included of course) but that the tide was starting to change.

Max wasn’t really sure if this revelation helped David or hurt him more—after all, the idea that with time they could have truly started being a family weighed heavily on him. Joyce seemed vindicated, or at least as vindicated as someone who had lost both a husband and her only daughter could be.

She was only slightly surprised that when she was done with breakfast Joyce brought out a box for Max to have. The box contained a few of Chloe’s belongings such as William’s instant camera (that Max had been using during the now-gone week), some video tapes, and a load of old Polaroid pictures that Max had taken of the two of them when they were younger. Max tried to insist that she couldn’t but Joyce would hear none of it—they were after all the memories of Max and Chloe.

The Snow Doe sat next to her laptop as she sorted through the pile of pictures, looking at each one and closing her eyes remembering the moment as best she could. It was a very bittersweet moment for her as she had some wonderful times with Chloe but now missed her more than ever. It sort of helped that she was getting bothered by random texts.

**Brooke: Hey Max, thank you!**

**Max: For?**

**Brooke: Getting Warren to go on a date with me finally. We’ve spent the last two days hanging out, it’s been AMAZING!!!!1**

**Max: Good! (*** **＾v** **＾*) Warren is a nice guy and he deserves someone his speed who likes him back, and I think you two are perfect for each other!**

**Brooke: I’ll find some way to repay you Max. I never would have believed you to be so kind if I wasn’t watching your talk with Warren.**

**Max: … you were watching us?**

**Brooke: Wait, you didn’t know?**

**Max: I have no clue what you’re talking about.**

**Brooke: … oh, you didn’t sign a text CC?**

**Max: No, my name is Max, remember.**

**Brooke: Weird.**

Max barely had time to register the sweet yet very odd conversation with Brooke when a new set of messages had come in.

**Blackwell Alert System: Parents and Students of Blackwell. In light of the recent tragedy on campus, the following changes will be implemented. (1/4)**

**Blackwell Alert System: Principal Wells has been placed on indefinite leave. Ms. Grant will take over duties as acting principal. (2/4)**

**Blackwell Alert System: Grief Counselors will be available on campus through the end of the month. Classes will resume Tuesday. (3/4)**

**Blackwell Alert System: The Everyday Heroes Contest winner will be announced tonight --Principal Grant (4/4)**

_At least the raging alcoholic who covered for Nathan will be gone. Ms. Grant should do well in his place, though why is she still giving out the award for the Everyday Heroes contest?_

Max no sooner set her phone down to resume looking at pictures when there was a soft knock on her door that could only belong to Kate. Before Max could pick herself up off the floor an envelope was slid underneath the door. She was able to reach over and grab the envelope, tearing it open.

Inside was a fancy card with what was clearly Kate’s handwriting, though it seemed Kate was trying her hardest to make it look like fancy calligraphy.

**Miss Maxine Caulfield,**

_Come on Kate, you know it’s Max, never Maxine._

**You are cordially invited to a spot of afternoon tea in the room of one Miss Kate Marsh at 2 pm.**

Max smiled warmly at that. For all of her insecurities and all of her differences, Kate was a lot like Victoria—extremely sweet on the inside but treated much differently than the queen. She looked at her clock and noticed that she only had half an hour before she was expected for tea. Max grabbed her shower stuff and headed to go clean up.

\---

While Max was in the shower she heard two people enter and immediately recognized the voices of Dana and Juliet. Dana was the one speaking as the two girls went to the mirror and started checking out their makeup and hair. “How’s the new article coming Juliet?”

“Awful Dana. I want to write about the truth around Nathan Prescott and his murder of that girl but I’m not able to get an in anywhere. The police won’t talk, Principal Wells wouldn’t talk before he was removed, none of the teachers are talking.”

“What about Max? She was there in the bathroom when it happened?” Dana asked as she brushed her hair.

“I think I have a better chance of a full confessional from Nathan to be honest. That girl has a security force around her that would make Mister Madsen jealous.”

“What do you mean Juliet?”

“Between Victoria and Kate she’s almost never alone, and Victoria has told people to stay away from Max unless Max approaches them first.”

Dana looked confused at that. _You know Max, you really have to stop this spying on people while taking a shower bit._ “What do you think Victoria’s game is? Revenge on you for that article you wrote about Vortex Club?”

Juliet shook her head. “I’m not really sure it is a game. Besides, Victoria already had plans for revenge on that and already apologized for what she did. That came out of nowhere. No, I think for whatever reason Victoria has decided to use her powers for good instead of evil and is just trying to protect Max. Now what made Victoria do that would be an interesting story, but alas I doubt the queen will ever spill her secrets.”

“Victoria Chase being protective of someone, who’d have thought?” Dana finished preening in the mirror and the two girls nodded at each other before leaving.

Max hurried up her shower and returned to her room. As much as she knew Kate would hope that she’d dress fancy, Max couldn’t bring herself to do it, she just simply put on a pair of jeans and a burgundy t-shirt that read “100% Organic”.

Heading just across the hall she knocked on Kate’s door which was promptly opened. Kate had rearranged her room so that a little nightstand was now acting as a table in the center of the room—though this would have them sitting on the floor due to its low height. _Glad I wore jeans._ Kate was all smiles as she let Max in.

“Welcome Miss Caulfield.”

“Thank you Miss Marsh.” Max looked at the table and noticed that instead of two settings there were three cups for tea. “Are we expecting a third?”

“Well, I’m hoping. I left an invitation for Victoria just like I had for you but I don’t think she’s around right now. I haven’t seen her since we had lunch together.”

Max couldn’t help but smile and let out a little chuckle as she sat down in front of one of the settings in the middle of the room. “Oh, so now you two are having dates without me huh?”

Kate instantly turned red. “MAX!”

Laughter overcame Max. As much as she loved her friend she knew that Kate could be way too sensitive at times. “Sorry Kate, couldn’t help it.”

For her part Kate quickly brushed it off and smiled at it. “It was pretty funny,” she said. Was Kate embarrassed by it, of course, but here was Max smiling and laughing. She knew all too well how important that could be given the last few days that Max has had.

The two girls waited about fifteen minutes just making small talk about the change in leadership at the school. Ms. Grant in charge was good, the Everyday Heroes contest was weird. Finally Kate sighed a little and said, “I don’t think she’s going to make it.”

Max nodded and picked up the tea pot off the hotplate that was keeping it warm and poured some for herself and Kate. As weird as it was to have a tea date not unlike the imaginary ones that little girls often play when they’re younger, it felt nice to Max—no expectations, no pressure, no judgement. Just a nice time, a warm drink, and friends.

Kate put the sugar in their teas and took a sip.

“So some things happened today Max.”

Immediately Max got worried. She knew Kate seemed to be doing better but wasn’t truly sure if Kate was over her issues.

“The first one is that I got an email from my mother this morning asking for my forgiveness. She’s heard all about everything that’s been going on here at Blackwell with Nathan and Mister Jefferson and Rachel Amber that she realized that it was her who was being the evil one with how she treated me, not me with going to one party.”

Max breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad that things are on the mend with your mother. What about your aunt?”

Kate shrugged at that. “I don’t know that it will ever get better. But my dad was secretly cheering for me that I did it. That counts for something, right?”

A grin from the skinny hipster answered that question before she took another sip.

“I got asked to the party tonight.”

Max swallowed hard and her eyebrows raised. The idea of Kate being asked to the Vortex Club party wasn’t a bad one at all, but given her experience last time and the kind of people at it, an instant wave of needing to protect poor Kate came over her.

“Who asked you Kate?” Max asked with the worry obvious in her voice.

“It was Daniel who asked me. Kind of surprised me. But the other day he asked if he could draw me and I said yes. He made a wonderful picture.”

All the tension and worry instantly drained from Max. Daniel was a good art student if not photography student, and an overall nice guy. She remembered the picture that he had drawn of her in the alternate reality and how great it was. “That’s great Kate.”

“Yeah, but I’m not going to the party. I definitely won’t go alone after the last time and I couldn’t ask you or Victoria to go with me.”

Speak of the devil and she shall appear. It was right at that moment Victoria came into Kate’s room with a frown on her face, wearing running shorts and a sports bra.

Not at all out of breath and breathing slowly Victoria said, “Sorry I didn’t come by earlier. I went for a jog, I hadn’t really gone out this week like I normally would so figured I’d try to get one in.”

Kate and Max both shook their heads. Kate spoke up and said, “No worries Victoria. We were just talking.”

“I heard. Did I hear this right that Kate got asked to go to a party by a boy?”

Kate turned red and nodded.

“Our little Kate is growing up, isn’t she Victoria. Pretty soon it’ll be restaurants and r-rated movies,” Max said teasing.

“Am I the one that’s supposed to hold the shotgun and tell the guy that if she’s not back by midnight then he better not come back at all?” Victoria pondered aloud.

“Good Grief you two,” Kate responded, her face still red from embarrassment provided courtesy of her friends.

Victoria came in the room further and took a seat at the spot where the third place setting was located. “So why aren’t you going then?”

Kate looked at Victoria with her eyebrows raised. “I’ve had enough Vortex Club parties thank you.”

“What if Max and I were there to protect you?”

Kate looked to Max, who looked to Victoria. Victoria had a very serious face on and just nodded to Max. “Um, what she said,” Max responded, not knowing what else to do.

Kate perked up, “But what should I wear?”

Victoria’s serious face turned to a smile, “Come with me ladies, we’re going shopping, my treat.”

\---

Taylor and Courtney were getting very frustrated with Frank. His RV parked down at the beach on a not-yet-cold October day.

“What do you mean you won’t supply us?” Taylor asked Frank indignantly. “You always hooked up Nathan for the Vortex Club parties.”

“Key word there is used to sweetheart. Despite the fact that I used to sell to Nathan, you two, and all of you Blackwell brats, I’m out of the game as far as you’re concerned. You need something for your little party, you can just fuck off and get it somewhere else.”

“We, we could report you,” Courtney said, trying her own tactic to pressure him.

Frank pulled out his knife and started playing with it in his hands. “I could feed you to my dog too, but for now I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”

Courtney was scared and backed up, hands covering her mouth. Taylor knew when she was defeated. “Come on Courtney.” She lead the way off the beach. _Fuck, maybe Victoria and Nathan were better cut out for this. Why was I such a bitch to Victoria? You have to learn to stop taking your anger with your mom’s situation out on others. Dammit Taylor, you need to make it up some how._

Frank just shook his head and resumed his seat as the girls walked off. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at the last text message he got not five minutes before the girls showed up.

**They found Rachel Amber’s body this morning. In a few days the police will say that she was murdered via a drug overdose injected into her by Nathan Prescott. You know EXACTLY where Nathan got those drugs Frank! --CC**

Frank sat the cell phone down on the arm of the chair, put his head into his hands and started crying.

\---

Kate and Max just kind of followed along when Victoria said she was taking them shopping before the Vortex Club Party. But a short ninety minutes later here they were in Portland going through an array of high end (for the Pacific Northwest) stores and boutiques looking for just the right thing.

Kate stepped out of the dressing room in a little red dress that seemed to have been created just with Kate in mind—more of a prom style dress, showing off her curves and being flirty while still being rather modest. The little red bow sealed the deal in Max’s eyes. Max took a picture with her Polaroid camera and just beamed at her friend.

“It’s perfect Kate, it really is.”

Victoria nodded in agreement. “I think this is the one for you Kate.” She looked to the clerk helping them. “We’ll take it.”

“Very good Miss Chase,” the clerk said. Victoria hadn’t even introduced herself, apparently she had been here before.

Victoria herself had been easy to shop for, she knew exactly what she wanted when she came in—her dress was a body hugging number that accentuated duality. Most of the dress was black and resembled the pencil skirts that Victoria normally wore, but just above her waist the fabric changed to a semi-sheer white top that resembled a corset, with 4 buttons trailing down. Black spaghetti straps finished off the look.

And boy was it a look, both Kate and Max’s jaws dropped when Victoria came out modelling it. Max knew that everybody at Blackwell would fall over themselves once they saw Victoria walk in wearing that dress.

Victoria pursed her lips as she looked through the various dresses. She wanted to find something for Max that fits the hipster’s personality. She knew Max wasn’t a dress girl, but much like her own outfit, she wanted something that would make everyone pause. When the three walked in it would be a case of ‘If looks could kill’.

Victoria searched for an hour while the clerk helped Kate accessorize. Max was bemused watching the whole process, just sitting there when Victoria finally called Max over.

“You’re going to feel silly I’m sure Max, but trust me, you’ll look good!”

Max took a deep breath and headed into the dressing room, not sure what to expect.

\---

Victoria and Kate waited while Max changed into her dress. Kate had been busy while Victoria was searching so she didn’t know what to expect when Max came out. Finally the door opened and Max slowly made her way outside. Kate just about fainted.

Max exited the dressing room a little awkwardly. She was wearing black leather boots that went just past her knees, though they looked loose enough to allow the petite brunette to walk in. There was a hint of thigh before a royal blue long sleeve dress hugged the rest of Max’s body. It was accessorized perfectly too with a Black belt that wrapped around her hips though never truly connecting, eyelets in the shoulders, and a bit of lace and sheer material over her upper arms.

“Wow Max, you look hot!” Kate couldn’t contain what she was thinking any longer. Max grinned sheepishly at the girl. Victoria stood up and right where the small amount of cleavage that Max had was being shown by the dress, she put a silver heart with beads hanging down.

“Perfect,” Victoria exclaimed. “We’ll check out now.”

The clothing that the girls came in with were put into bags so they could wear their new clothes out.

Before they left the store there was only one last thing to be done besides pay. Max pulled the three of them together, Victoria in the middle, Kate on the right side and Max on the left and Max took a Polaroid selfie of the three girls.

Max escaped the store before she could find out how much Victoria spent on the three of them. Victoria seemed happy though. _Huh, maybe retail therapy is a thing._

\---

Victoria was right, the look of the three girls in black, blue, and red was having the intended effect. As they walked towards the swimming complex everyone outside stopped at what they were doing and stared. Victoria walked like she owned the school and Max and Kate were doing their own decent job of owning it too. For the two less popular girls the looks and knowing how attractive they looked tonight seemed to have such a massive effect on their confidence that they actually showed that confidence in their every move for once. Max was confident mostly because there was only one moon in the sky tonight.

When they entered into the party entrance, Stella was playing the part of coat check girl. “May I take your… whoa!” Stella was floored as she saw the three girls. Victoria just smiled and made her way to the curtain, Kate flushed red to match her dress and Max just gave a little wave.

Everyone inside reacted in much the same way as the three girls walked in stride. They approached the refreshment table, the one Max knew had only soda and juice and saw Daniel. Like everyone else he seemed stunned by the beauty of the three girls, but as soon as he realized that one of those three was Kate, he looked about to faint. Kate separated from the others to go join Daniel. Victoria looked around for a second before spotting Courtney in the corner.

Max followed Victoria over to Courtney, who looked about as down as she had in the lost week.

“Victoria!” Courtney called out before looking depressed again.

“Where’s Taylor,” Victoria asked, “I need to talk to you both.”

“She’s…” Courtney finally noticed Max. “Wow Max, I, wow!”

“Courtney,” Victoria said a little more frustrated.

Max leaned into Victoria and said, “Be right back.”

For her part Max had a mission. She walked along the pool toward Alyssa. “Hey Alyssa, come here.”

Alyssa stood in shock like everyone else. She stepped forward toward Max to see if her eyes were deceiving her or not. Once she did the pool noodle that would have knocked her into the pool went flying behind her. Alyssa turned around and then looked back to Max.

“Be careful Alyssa,” Max said before returning to Victoria and Courtney.

Victoria saw the whole thing and just smiled at Max. “Cheater.”

Max shrugged. She couldn’t deny it.

“Max, keep an eye on Kate, I’m going to the VIP area to talk with Courtney and Taylor.”

“Okay,” Max replied as she settled up to the refreshment bar and watched Kate and Daniel interact.

\---

When Victoria entered the VIP section she immediately spotted Taylor. It took Taylor a minute but she eventually noticed Victoria and smiled. Despite the fact that Victoria was closing toward Taylor, the latter made her way over and hugged Victoria.

“I’m so sorry Victoria.”

Victoria nodded and smiled for a second before frowning a little. “It’s your mom, isn’t it?”

Taylor nodded. “Her recovery isn’t going so well, there’ve been some setbacks.”

“And just like me, you take your insecurities, your stress out on other people.”

Taylor hugged Victoria even more. “I know, I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had this stupid party.”

“Nonsense Taylor. You and Courtney did a wonderful job.”

Courtney interjected here. “But we couldn’t get the stuff that Nathan normally gets.”

Victoria shook her head aggressively. “I don’t care. I know what happened at the last Vortex Club party and let’s just say it’s time to change how we do things a little so people don’t get hurt.”

Both of the girls nodded to Victoria.

“Sorry I haven’t been around this week. Life is… bizarre.”

“What’s up with you hanging out with Jesus Slut and Hipster Trash anyway?” Courtney asked.

Victoria rounded on Courtney and glared. “Do not call them that Courtney.” She raised her hands in a signal to stop. “I know exactly what you’re going to say, those are my nicknames for them. But that’s in the past. This week has been rough as you know, they needed me, and as much as I hate to admit it, I needed them.”

Taylor nodded. “We get it Victoria. Besides, you look happy.”

Victoria smiled to Taylor. “Don’t worry, we’ll go to Portland soon enough. Just wait until you see what I did with Kate and Max.”

With that Victoria turned away from Taylor, and Courtney rushed over to give Taylor all the juicy details about Max and Kate’s dresses.

She surveyed the VIP section for a moment. _It’s so weird that this is one of the last things an alternate version of me had experienced._ The VIP lounge was no longer appealing for her so she made her way back out into the main pool area with most of the party goers.

Max was still sitting by the bar where Victoria had left her, but she was watching Daniel and Kate out there dancing. Brooke and Warren were out there as well. _Huh, so he finally gave up on Max._ Victoria shook her head and moved back to Max.

“You can’t let your friends have all the fun without you.”

Victoria grabbed Max’s arm and drug her out to where the four were already dancing. Victoria started to dance and after a moment Max awkwardly joined in. _We seriously need to teach you how to dance girl._ However the thoughts of Max’s movements that she apparently called dancing floated away from Victoria. The stress, the pretentiousness, the anger, the self-doubt, it all melted away from Victoria in a moment as the six of them danced together in a group. By the next song Courtney and Taylor had come to join them.

She wasn’t sure how long the bliss had lasted, she just knew she felt a little empty when it ended several songs later as the music quit playing. Ms. Grant was on the stage.

“You know, I didn’t really like the idea of this party happening tonight, but as I look around and see people here who would have every right to be pissed off at this seeming to enjoy themselves, I think it was an okay choice. But you didn’t come here to hear me talk, so I’ll just tell you the winner of the Everyday Heroes contest.”

Max reached out to hold Victoria’s hand. She knew that Victoria wanted this badly. Kate grabbed Victoria’s other hand and soon the group of them were holding hands anxious for the announcement.

“And the winner, representing Blackwell at the 2013 Everyday Heroes exhibition in San Francisco, is Maxine Caulfield.”

Max rolled her eyes and said her trademarked, “Max, never Maxine,” before the look of confusion crossed her face. While everyone was cheering she didn’t understand. “But I didn’t enter.”

Victoria released the hands of Kate and Max. This is the point where Max figured that Victoria would be mad that Max had won, but instead Victoria was beaming. “Surprise. I found your entry in the bathroom and insisted that Ms. Grant accept it as an entry. Congratulations Max!”

Max didn’t know what to say, she was absolutely floored that Victoria would do something like that for her.

“You could thank me you know.”

“Thank you Victoria, you have no idea how much this means to me.”

Victoria shrugged and smiled, “You deserve it Max.”

The music started to play and the crowd returned to dancing. Victoria shook her head at Max once more and said, “Come on Max, let me show you how you’re supposed to shake that bony hipster ass.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have uploaded pictures of the dresses the girls got to my tumblr for this story. May use it more in the future, may not. - lismovingforward.tumblr.com


	13. The Lighthouse Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max visits the lighthouse before Chloe's funeral.

Max knew it seemed odd to ask Victoria to take her to the lighthouse before the funeral, but she needed to go. Pretty much everybody seemed to be in as good of a place as they could be considering the situation. Kate hadn’t jumped, became friends with Victoria, managed to attend another Vortex Club party and not have an incident this time, and even got asked out by a guy. Victoria went from mean girl of Blackwell to quickly becoming one of Max’s best friends, something she never expected ever in any timeline. Max, Kate and Victoria all camped out together in Victoria’s room after the Vortex party, the latter two determined to not leave Max alone yet.

She walked the path to the top of the hill where the lighthouse stood wearing a black dress—it seemed appropriate for the day. Around her neck was Chloe’s bullet necklace that she had taken from the dark room in the other timeline, though it was hidden underneath the dress. For the world to see Max wore a gold necklace with a doe for the centerpiece. She reached the top of the hill and went to the bench where only four, or was it nine days ago she sat with Chloe telling her everything that was going on.

She stood in front of the bench and looked out at the Pacific Ocean as the golden hour approached. She watched the reflection of the sun on the water and the birds flying in the sky. She looked over toward Arcadia Bay and just saw the town. No beached whales, no giant tornado trying to rip the town apart, just peace.

“I’ll miss you Chloe,” Max said quietly to herself as she just looked out. She took a seat on the bench for a few moments to just take the scene in. As she was about to get up she heard a rustling and wondered if it might be the doe she had seen during the now aborted week, but it was something much more real to her—Victoria.

“I can go back to the car if you need me to Max,” Victoria said quietly. Like Max she was ready for the funeral, though not quite in black as much as Max was.

“No, you can stay,” Max responded.

Victoria approached Max slowly, tentatively—as much as the friendship had blossomed over this week and they seemed inseparable, Victoria imagined this would be a rough day and didn’t want to push things too much.

“This is where you saw the storm, isn’t it?”

Max nodded to the question, “Yeah, a lot of things happened here that week.”

Victoria looked down as she reached Max and sat beside her on the bench.

“And where you said goodbye.”

Another nod from Max, who instead of talking just took a deep breath.

“Max, can I ask you a much more personal question? Telling me no is an acceptable answer.”

The corner of Max’s mouth curved upward like a smile for a moment before she shook her head, “I don’t mind if you ask a question Victoria, right now you probably know more about me than anyone else alive, or at least my recent situation.”

“Did… did you love her?”

Max was surprised by the question but did her best to not let that surprise show. “She was my best friend Victoria, of course I loved her.” Max tried answering this in the most nonchalant way possible.

Victoria shook her head. “You know that’s not what I asked Max. Were, were you in love with her?”

The brunette took a deep breath and started to stumble over her answer. “Victoria, I, uh, well…” she paused for a moment and looked down to the ground and sighed. “Yes.”

Victoria nodded at that and quietly said, “I thought as much. I truly am sorry that for whatever reason the universe had to be cruel to you.” She stood up, probably more unsure of herself than she had ever been at any point in her life. “I’ll let you be and wait for you at the car. Take as much time as you need.”

When Victoria started to walk off Max didn’t do anything to stop the taller blonde. Before she went down the hill Victoria took one last look at Max and frowned.

Max once again stood up and looked out onto the ocean.

“You know Chloe, it’s odd how different a week can be from just one little thing, like you not being here. I’m forever glad I got to spend that week with you. Life is hella crazy.”

Max afforded herself a second of laughter before she turned to see Victoria’s hair disappearing from view down the path.

“Hey Victoria, wait up,” Max called as she started down the path herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter following the long one. Just as a heads up, Chapter 15 will leave on a cliffhanger for a few days, but it'll be worth it.
> 
> Coming soon: Chapter 14: On a Jet Plane and Chapter 15: San Francisco Nightmare


	14. On a Jet Plane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max heads to San Francisco with some unexpected company.

When Max woke up Saturday morning, she didn’t quite know what to make of her situation, her bed was a little crowded as her arms were wrapped around Kate, who was sleeping just inches in front of her, and her own body was surrounded by Victoria’s arms who was behind her. _Okay, I love you both and you’re both awesome, but someday I’m gonna want to sleep in my own bed by myself like a normal person._ As weird as it was Max still found it incredibly sweet how the two girls were so focused on looking out for her.

But for now though Max had other things she had to tend to. When she started to pull her arms free from Kate the other girl stirred. “Is it morning already Max?”

“Yeah, and I have to start getting packed for the trip to San Francisco.”

“I suppose I could get up, but your bed is just so warm.”

Max laughed a little. “With three of us on it, it should be.”

“True,” Kate said in a matter-of-fact way. She started moving to get off the bed so that Max could get off too. When she had herself ready she offered a hand to help Max out.

“Where do you think you’re going Max?” Victoria asked, her voice all groggy from being tired.

“I need to start pack…”

“No, I mean, get your camera and take your damn selfie first. I noticed you hadn’t been taking many lately so it’s time for us to make up for that.”

Before Max could even protest Kate was holding out Max’s camera to her. Max took the camera and held it up, but before she could take the picture Kate jumped back on the bed to the dismay of both Max and Victoria. So it was gonna be a three person selfie again, but Max could live with that as she snapped the picture.

With the selfie taken Kate hopped back off the bed. Max crawled off the bed herself and looked into the mirror, surprised that a zombie wasn’t looking back at her like it normally seemed to be lately.

“So how are you two going to handle me not being here tonight, you two are getting pretty used to staying in the same bed as me. I’ll admit it’s going to be weird being in San Francisco without you two.”

Victoria sat up stretching and yawning. “Don’t be ridiculous Caulfield, we’re going too.”

Max’s jaw dropped. “What?”

Kate jumped up and down in excitement like she had been prone to do in the last few days again. “Yup, we’re going too!”

Max was confused by this. “What do you mean, the contest only pays for me to…”

Victoria cut Max off. “Screw the contest. I already arranged it with Ms. Grant. I’m paying for Kate and I to fly down there with you, the four of us will spend the weekend in San Francisco having fun and attending the gallery to see your piece on display.”

Several blinks from Max before a giant smile enveloped her face. “This is going to be so much fun! Though you know, I’m not even sure what picture won yet, I haven’t seen what you turned in Victoria.”

A smirk crossed Victoria’s face. “You know which one it is.”

More confusion from Max. “If it’s that one, I ripped it up.”

“Oh, I know.” Victoria said as she crawled off of Max’s bed. She looked at Kate and pointed to the door. She turned toward Max who was just kind of standing lost in thought in front of her. She raised her hand back and…

*smack*

Max let out a yelp as Victoria’s hand smacked her butt.

“Get packing Caulfield,” Victoria ordered, and turned to leave Max’s room.

\---

Max sat next to Ms. Grant on the plane, taking the Aisle seat as opposed to the window that she had occupied the last time she went to San Francisco. She mentally rolled her eyes as her last trip to San Francisco had never happened. On the other side of the aisle was Victoria and Kate. Max found that Victoria wasn’t kidding about arranging things with Ms. Grant.

“So Max, have you ever been to San Francisco before?” Ms. Grant asked.

“Yeah… no. No, I haven’t.”

Ms. Grant shrugged off the odd way that Max answered.

“It’s a wonderful city Max. And since we’ll be there until Monday I’m sure we’ll be able to do a few touristy things, or see some other galleries if that interests you.”

“I’d like that,” Max replied. She looked over to Victoria and Kate who seemed to be sleeping at the moment.

“This feels odd Ms. Grant, flying down with you instead of Jefferson or Principal Wells.” She still couldn’t call him Mister Jefferson anymore.

“That was quite unexpected when Mark Jefferson was arrested. I have a hard time believing that he’d target you girls, but from what I’ve heard I’m ashamed no one caught onto it sooner.”

Max nodded. “And what about Principal Wells?”

Ms. Grant smiled again and leaned back. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be back in charge soon enough. The trustees didn’t have much of a choice, a girl was murdered on his watch by a supposedly model student. From what I gathered Nathan’s history wasn’t as squeaky clean as we were led to believe.”

Max nodded to that but felt the need to change the subject once more. “Thanks for letting them come along.”

Ms. Grant smiled a little at the comment. “Well I’m sure since you’re friends and all that you know that Victoria Chase doesn’t take no for an answer.”

“Damn right I don’t,” Victoria said, opening an eye and looking over at Max with a devilish smile.

“When she offered to pay the way for her and Miss Marsh I couldn’t really refuse. We all understand how rough this week has been for you, so anything to help you get through it.”

Max once more looked over to Victoria who looked back. _It’s funny how often people will say they understand how bad things have been or how rough they have been when they really have no fucking clue. Only Victoria is even close to having an idea and she probably is still a ways off from understanding how heavy my heart truly feels._

For her part Victoria offered a reassuring smile back to Max.

Max was excited, she really enjoyed herself when she went to San Francisco in the aborted timeline, but in that one it was Friday and Chloe’s life was in danger. It would be afternoon still when they got to the gallery today.

Max looked at her left wrist and turned the bracelet that was wrapped around it over several times. It felt odd to be wearing Victoria’s bracelet, but the blonde insisted. Besides, she still had her real bracelet. It was one of the few times that she could honestly say she was twinning with Victoria Chase. She smiled at the thought and pulled out her phone. Even with it on airplane mode she could look at all the texts of sympathy and support that everyone had sent her both Friday and today before leaving. People really did care, and that made Max incredibly happy.

It was the last text message though that made Max worry though. She didn’t know what to make of it, but she knew the things she had heard from others and she remained wary at what it could mean.

**I’m sorry for what’s going to happen tonight Max, but you’ll make it through, I promise --CC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day... stay tuned for the cliffhanger in Chapter 15 - San Francisco Nightmare


	15. San Fancisco Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Could there be anything worse for Max than having to sacrifice Chloe? Yes, yes there can be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the big cliffhanger. Back in a few days with the next chapter. Sorry in advance.

**I'm sorry for what's going to happen tonight Max, but you'll make it through, I promise –CC**

The text message from the now infamous CC was on Max’s mind for the rest of the flight, and the trip to the hotel. Even though it was a school sanctioned trip and Max should have been staying with Ms. Grant, it was Max and Victoria that would share a room with Kate and Ms. Grant in the other. This of course wouldn’t matter because in the double bed room now shared by Max and Victoria there would be more than enough room for Kate—it’d pretty much been decided upon already.

_I’m sorry for what’s going to happen tonight. What the hell kind of message is that, what’s supposed to happen now?_

She was supposed to be getting ready for the trip to the Zeitgeist Gallery where her picture was on display for San Francisco to see, but the thoughts and the worry over what the message could be threatened to swallow her whole on a night that should be hers.

Max was sitting on the edge of the bed when Victoria came up behind her.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready Max?”

Max shook herself out of the funk she was in. “Yeah, I should, thank Victoria.” She opened her suitcase and looked inside for what she was going to wear to the gallery tonight. It was funny that she had already experienced this event once, on a different day, and was now going back for the first time. Max decided to keep it simple as she pulled out the same black jeans, white shirt, and tan jacket that she wore during her original experience in the gallery.

As Max changed Victoria just stood watching while idly folding clothes that had just been unfolded from her suitcase. About halfway through putting her shirt on Max noticed this and asked, “Something wrong?”

“I was just thinking,” Victoria started without missing a beat, “That you’ve done this before already, haven’t you?”

Max could only nod to that. “Yeah.”

Victoria smiled as Max continued to dress for the event. “Don’t sound so down about it, I wish it was my art that was being portrayed right now.”

Max stopped while putting on her pants and looked at Victoria. “It probably would have been if you didn’t interfere.”

A shrug from the blonde who chose just the right cashmere sweater to put on. “Perhaps, but you deserved to win Max. I do stand by what I said before that we should collaborate on something once we get back to Blackwell.”

Her pants on, Max was just putting the belt through the loops. “I’d like that Victoria.”

Victoria grabbed her makeup kit and stepped into the bathroom to make sure things were perfect. Soon there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it Victoria,” Max said as she went to the door and opened it. Kate was standing there beaming, while Ms. Grant stood behind her.

“I take it we’re just about ready ladies?”

Max went back to the bed and grabbed her jacket. “I’m good to go,” Max said confidently as she put the jacket on. When Victoria came out of the bathroom and looked at Max she shook her head.

“At least the hipster look is quite popular here in San Francisco Max. It’ll play quite well I think.”

Max stuck her tongue out at Victoria.

“I like it, it’s very Max, the one we’ve been missing lately,” Kate added.

Victoria grabbed her purse and the four ladies were off to the gallery.

\---

The taxi dropped the four off at the Gallery. Max knew exactly what to expect, but none of the others had. Max had found its mix of red brick and industrial design to be a wonderful mix that she enjoyed immensely. Victoria smiled knowingly toward Max.

“Even the hipster’s art is in a hipster building.” Victoria couldn’t help but laugh at her own joke. Kate thought the place looked cute and Ms. Grant stayed silent with her opinion as they went in.

Victoria and Kate went over to the wall where Max knew her name was located. Much like last time Max took a deep breath as she stepped inside.

“You know Max, I’m so proud of you for the way you’ve overcome the adversity of this week. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to interact with the art community that you’re now a part of.”

Max smiled up at Ms. Grant. Ms. Grant’s speech was much more personal, but she felt that Principal Wells had gotten his point across much more simply. “I suppose that I should get out there and schmooze?”

Ms. Grant laughed. “Something like that Max. The most important thing is that you try to enjoy yourself tonight. You’ve earned this, and no one can take that away from you.”

“Thanks Ms. Grant.” Max replied before getting out there to do what she was told.

As she approached Victoria and Kate she was reminded once more.

**I'm sorry for what's going to happen tonight Max, but you'll make it through, I promise –CC**

When she joined her friends she took both of their hands and started leading them through the gallery. “I’ll show you where my picture is,” Max said confidently.

“You already know where it is?” Kate asked a little confused.

Victoria looked over at Max and Kate before speaking up. “Yeah, Max got a text earlier showing her exactly where her photo would be located.”

Max stayed quiet and Kate accepted the explanation. She still wasn’t sure how, or even what photo Max had submitted to the contest. She led her two companions to the stairs on the left.

As they walked through the gallery there was all sorts of overheard talk about the exhibits, about Jefferson being arrested, about the girl from Blackwell.

Every time Max was mentioned indirectly Kate couldn’t help but squeal. _Oh Kate, I love your enthusiasm, how different you are with your depression gone._ Even Victoria was smiling brightly at Kate’s giddiness.

Max knew the path that would lead them straight to look at her picture and she led her friends down it. When it finally came into view Max stopped, stunned. _Huh._

When Victoria told her about picking up her picture in the bathroom Max had feared the worst—that fucking blue butterfly that seemed to set in motion both her greatest triumph and her greatest heartache. So Max was completely surprised when it was her selfie of the selfie wall, but torn in half. In the enlarged version it wasn’t even put back together properly, the two halves were separated by just enough that people could realize that it was ripped apart.

Max’s damaged selfie had a rather large crowd around it, far more than what she had seen in the aborted timeline when she thought everything was cool. Knowing that it wasn’t as bad as she had expected it to be, Max led her little group forward so they could hear the crowd.

“I still don’t get art. Why would it be ripped in half?”

“She was sending a message about the destruction of the self.”

“This Max Caulfield girl is a genius, subverting the selfie and then subverting her own picture of that. It’s layers within layers, worlds within worlds.”

“It’s even better than that Jake. According to the program the picture wasn’t even submitted by the artist herself, so she didn’t just subvert the selfie and her own picture, but the whole Everyday Heroes contest.”

“I told you, genius.”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen an entry with a dedication.”

This last comment caught Max off guard. She let go of both Victoria and Kate and pressed forward through the crowd. When the crowd realized who it was trying to press through they easily parted.

“That’s her, that’s Max Caulfield.”

“The program said she couldn’t make it last night.”

Max reached the picture and looked underneath it. Victoria had gone all out in submitting Max’s picture for her.

**Broken – Max Caulfield, Blackwell Academy, Arcadia Bay, OR**

**In loving memory of Chloe Price.**

A smile crossed her mouth and she exited the crowd to find Kate and Victoria. While the two girls looked at her Max went right up to Victoria and gave her a giant hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Victoria wrapped her arms around Max and also quietly said, “You’re welcome.” It took but a moment for Kate to come behind Max and soon the three girls were hugging.

When they broke the hug the group was approached by a man that Max had recognized immediately.

“You’re Max Caulfield right, my name is—“

“Danny Lee,” Max said with a smile. “I read your work all the time!”

Unlike last time when Max seemed to have hero worship and couldn’t even get in two words edgewise, she controlled the conversation. Danny seemed a bit surprised.

“Well then, I might as well tell you that I love your work, how you took the ironic selfie and literally destroyed it. I’d like to set up an appointment to talk to you more about your work, maybe see your portfolio and feature it in an upcoming article.”

“Of course Danny, I’d like that.”

Danny nodded and pulled out a card. “Give me a call, I can’t wait to talk with you Max.”

And as quickly as he came flying in, he was gone.

Victoria and Kate both turned to stare at Max.

“Danny Lee is gushing all over your work Max,” Victoria said with a smile but also a hint of jealousy. “I guess you were right Caulfield.”

“Right about what Victoria?”

“That you don’t have to be a cutthroat bitch to make it in the art world. You’re one of the most chill people ever and you’ve already got Danny Lee fawning over you. You’re going places Max, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was envious.”

Max shook her head. “That’s nonsense Victoria. “You’re gonna be big too, I just know it. And I’ll be right on the sidelines cheering you on the whole time.”

Victoria laughed, “What, you’ve seen the future?”

Victoria’s phone dinged with a text message.

Another shake of Max’s head. “I’ve seen your work, I know you’ll be awesome.”

Victoria checked her phone. As she glanced at the message on the screen it took all her concentration to keep a poker face.

**She’s right you know –CC**

She put her phone away and smiled to Max. “Let’s go check out the competition.”

“Victoria!”

“Kidding Max, I know it’s art.”

The three spent the next several hours around the gallery checking out the pieces, debating about them, critiquing. Max as always took a few random photos of various patrons of the gallery. Most didn’t notice, though a few did and were unhappy until they recognized Max’s face from the program. It’s amazing how quickly people go from being angry about random pictures to being honored when it’s a famous (at least in this room at this moment) photographer taking the picture.

Finally it was getting late and Ms. Grant tracked them down. “I know they’ve had a spread out here, but I suppose you ladies are about ready for a real dinner?”

They all nodded and Victoria spoke up. “We should go out for burgers.”

Max, Kate, and Ms. Grant all stopped and just stared at Victoria.

Becoming a little unnerved by the staring, Victoria looked between the three of them and said, “What? Did I say something wrong?”

Max took the honors. “I don’t imagine any of us thought Victoria Chase would even be okay with the idea of burgers, let alone suggesting it.”

Victoria couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, I normally keep to a strict diet, but fuck the diet.” She turned a little red and sweetly said, “Sorry Ms. Grant.” When Ms. Grant nodded to the blonde Victoria continued. “I figured we’ve all had such a hellish week with everything that has gone on that something simple, enjoyable, and classic is called for today.”

None of the other ladies could argue so they went out to find a burger place.

When they finally found a place the three girls learned a lot about each other. Kate was the one who went with the vegetarian burger to the groan of both Max and Victoria. Max went the opposite route, she wanted her burger plain, only meat and cheese on it. Victoria surprised everyone when she ordered the restaurants largest burger and managed to wolf it down before the other girls had gotten halfway through. Lesson learned—Victoria stuck to a strict diet because that girl could have probably eaten the restaurant out of existence and not been sated.

Another Taxi ride and the girls were back at the hotel. Kate received a text message upon entering and frowned. When they got up to the floor with their rooms Kate said she had to call her dad, but Max thought there was something off about the way Kate was acting. Kate excused herself and Max and Victoria went into their room.

Much to Max’s surprise there was a cart waiting in their room with a bottle of wine on it and two glasses.

“Um, did we get someone else’s room service by mistake?” Max asked once the door was shut.

Victoria shook her head. “No. The reservation is in my dad’s name so I had him call and send one up.” Victoria went to the wine bottle and picked it and the corkscrew up. She deftly uncorked the bottle and poured some into a glass. “Want some Max?”

Max hesitated for just a moment. Flashbacks to her and Chloe spilling wine on Joyce’s floor and vigorously trying to get it out of the carpet played in her mind. When she looked up and Victoria seemed disappointed that Max seemed to be leading towards no she quickly said, “Sure, why not.”

Victoria poured a second glass and picked up the glass to hand to Max. Max took it and Victoria smiled. “To Max Caulfield, our famous photographer of Blackwell.”

Max rolled her eyes. “To Victoria Chase, a soon to be famous artist in her own right and without who Max would still be a nobody.”

A warm smile crossed Victoria’s face and they clanked glasses together. They both drank their glasses, and the refills until the bottle was gone.

They laid on the separate beds so as not to disturb each other in their activities before bed (besides, Kate hadn’t returned yet). Victoria was just texting back and forth on her phone and Max was reading Kate’s copy of The October Country. _I really should return this to Kate._

It was approaching 10:30 when Max started to grow concerned that Kate hadn’t come back. As she put the book down and pulled out her headphones she looked over and saw Victoria on her side, apparently sobbing.

Max grew instantly concerned and leapt off the bed over to Victoria. Putting her hand on Victoria’s back, she tried to comfort her friend. “Victoria, what’s wrong.”

Victoria sat up with Max’s help and looked at Max all teary eyed. It was a good thing that Victoria had put on waterproof mascara, otherwise she’d look a mess right now. “Max, I’m being such a selfish bitch.”

_Okay, that’s out of nowhere._ Max shook her head, “You’re not Victoria, at least I don’t see how you are.”

The blonde shook her head in response to that. “I am. I’m fucking jealous and want something that isn’t mine, and it’s killing me inside.”

Max remained confused by what Victoria said. “Nonsense Victoria. It’s just the wine talking.”

Victoria shook her head. “No. I want something I can’t have, and I know it’s not fair. It’s not fair that I want it and it’s not fair to the other person that I want it. They deserve better.”

_Oh I had to know boy drama would come into the picture._ “It’s not Zach, is it?”

Victoria stopped sobbing to look up at Max a little incredulous. “Gawd no, it’s not Zach.”

“Then I don’t get it.”

“Am I a good person Max?”

Max couldn’t help but smile warmly at her friend. “Yes you are Victoria. Deep down you’re a wonderful person even if your insecurities make you feel like you have to be mean to everyone.”

Victoria smiled a little. “I like you Max,” she said softly.

“And I like you Victoria,” Max replied almost automatically. For some reason this made Victoria frown and sigh.

She pulled herself back from Max a little bit and turned to face her.

“No Max, I mean I really like you. I always thought you were kind of cool and this week has opened my eyes to how awesome of a person you are Max Caulfield. I’m a better person as your friend, and I really like being with you.”

Max sat there silent for the moment.

“It’s why I asked if you were in love with Chloe. I’ve had these feelings building up inside me all week and I wanted to know if I had a chance. But I can’t do that to you Max.” The tears started flowing again.

Victoria continued, “You let me in when I read your journal and I get that you loved Chloe. It’s not fair for me to sit here and hope you could love me when you just lost your best friend and the love of your life. I love you Max.”

Max nodded and sat there for a moment—she knew she had to get this one right. Finally she smiled and said, “Chloe was my best friend, and you’re right. But Victoria, I really like you too.”

Victoria smiled and leaned forward. Max didn’t stop her as Victoria’s lips pressed against her own. It was only a short kiss but Max felt sparks fly at it.

“Wowser,” Max said, both the girls giggling.

This time however it was Max’s turn. She didn’t know if this was right, she didn’t know if it was dishonoring Chloe’s memory. Maybe it was the wine talking, but at this moment in time she wanted nothing more than to kiss Victoria Chase.

Max leaned in, raising her left hand to cup Victoria’s face. In that moment everything was a blur and Max’s head started to hurt.

Victoria continued, again, “You let me in when I read your journal and I get that you loved Chloe. It’s not fair for me to sit here and hope you could love me when you just lost your best friend and the love of your life. I love you Max.”

Max took in a sharp breath of air and started shaking. “No, no, no, no, no.” She scurried off the bed and ran from the hotel room crying and saying “no” over and over, leaving a confused and crying Victoria Chase in her wake.


	16. Reciprocation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Kate's turn to help Victoria

Kate Marsh walked into the fancy hotel with her two best friends and one of her favorite teachers beside her. Her stomach full from a delicious vegetarian burger, she was looking forward to the wonderful girls’ night that awaited them. Her phone buzzed multiple times, indicating that she was receiving text messages.

She reached into her purse and grabbed her phone out and started looking them over.

**Kate Marsh – you don’t know me but may have heard people talking about CC, but I know you. I know the only R-rated movie you’ve seen is Passion of the Christ. I know that you were drugged by Nathan Prescott and (1/5)**

**Photographed by Mark Jefferson. I know that if no one had intervened you planned to jump off the roof of your dormitory on Tuesday. I also know you told your aunt off and confessed to Victoria that you knew Max was (2/5)**

**Hiding something. Now I need you to read this carefully and to trust me. My name is Christine and what I’m about to tell you could mean the difference between life and death. You need to bow out of hanging with Max (3/5)**

**And Victoria for now. Come up with an excuse like you need to call your dad. At 11pm you will finally go to your room and Victoria will be there alone, crying. Comfort her! In that moment you’re going to do for her what (4/5)**

**She did for you just a few days ago. If you do not follow these instructions Victoria will not make it to morning. Please Kate, trust me on this. –Christine (aka CC) (5/5)**

Kate read over the messages and frowned. “Hey Max, Victoria, I need to give my dad a call. I’ll join you two a little later.”

Max and Victoria both looked at Kate almost suspiciously, but they smiled to her and nodded that they’d see her in a few minutes. Kate started to make her way to the little nook where the hotel would serve breakfast in the morning and she reread the next messages several times.

Kate decided that she’d try to respond, see if she could get any more information out of this mysterious person texting her.

**Okay, so you obviously know a lot about me, but what’s the harm in me being in the room?**

**Message Send Failure.**

_Figures. But seriously, how did this Christine know so much about me? I mean only Max or Victoria were there for specific moments. And only those two had any clue that something was going to happen. But neither of them seemed to know what was going on with me._

Kate felt confused about what to do, so she did the only thing she knew that she could do once she was confused by something, she decided to spend some time praying.

She lost track of how much time she spent praying, and although she didn’t get the answers she was hoping for she felt much better about things. Feeling a little more calm about the situation she found herself in, she picked up her phone and actually called her dad—she had promised she would and even though it was now pretty late, he would understand and be glad to hear from her.

Kate’s conversation with her father went rather well though it was short due to the time of night it was. When she hung up she just decided to sit back and wait, playing some games on her phone.

Finally it hit 10:50 and she knew that it was time to start heading up. She got in the elevator and headed up to the room, a quiet trip. She reached the room and looked down at her phone—it wasn’t time yet so she waited. Kate put her ear to the door to try and hear anything but was unable to. When the phone read 11 pm she put the keycard in the door and entered.

The hotel room was dark save for the bathroom light and a single table lamp that was between the two beds. On the far bed Kate could see Victoria laying on her side, and it looked like Victoria was sobbing.

Her phone forgotten, Kate rushed over to Victoria. “What’s wrong, what’s happened?”

Even in the bad light of the room Kate could tell that Victoria was now dry crying, her tears already used up by the time Kate had arrived in the room. “Victoria, what’s wrong?”

Victoria finally registered that Kate was in the room with her. “I’m a fucking idiot and a pathetic loser, that’s what’s wrong Kate.”

A frown crossed Kate’s face. “Victoria Maribeth Chase, that’s a lie and you know it,” Kate said, sounding perhaps more stern than she ever had before.

Victoria stopped crying for just a moment to laugh at that. “That was a great mom voice Kate,” she said sardonically. The sobbing started back up again.

Kate leaned over Victoria, gently touching her arm. “What happened Victoria?”

Victoria let out several more sobs, refusing to answer the question or so it seemed. When Kate was about to ask again Victoria quietly said, “Max.”

Looking around the room, Kate failed to understand what was going on. “Max? What about her, she’s not here.”

A louder cry escapes Victoria’s mouth. “I know, that’s the problem.”

_Alright, now I’m really confused_. “Victoria, did something happen to Max? I’m confused about what’s going on here.”

Victoria finally sat up at that statement, looking some combination between heartbroken, sad, and angry. “She left me, she left me right after I…” she paused, not sure how she should say what was coming next.

Kate looked a little more worried now, “Victoria, what did you do?”

Victoria gulped and took a deep breath. “Kate, I’m in love with Max.”

The Christian girl missed the meaning of what Victoria was saying at first. “Well yeah, we both love Max but…” then it hit her. “Oh. Ohhhhh.” Kate just nodded and turned red. “I, I didn’t know you were that way Victoria.”

The sobbing blonde shook her head, “I never have been, I think it’s about loving the person.” She shrugged. “But she left.”

Kate frowned a little more. “Okay, what exactly happened Victoria.”

Another deep breath before she responded. “We had a little wine, and after a while I told her that I was in love with her.”

A nod from Kate. “And how did she respond?”

Victoria started crying again. “She. She started yelling no a lot and ran out of the room.”

Kate gasped upon hearing this. _Maxine Caulfield, what in tarnation have you done?_

“Why would she do that Kate? I thought we were supposed to be friends. If she didn’t feel the same way she could have just said so. Just the way she did it…”

“Made you feel like she ripped out your heart and took it with her as she fled.”

Victoria took a sharp breath and looked up. “Yeah.”

Kate leaned in to hug Victoria.

“I never open myself like this, I never let anyone in too deep and the first time I really do…”

Kate shook her head and hugged Victoria tightly. “It’s not your fault. I’m sure it’s something to do with Max. Maybe, maybe she couldn’t handle it on top of everything this week.”

A sniffle from Victoria. “Maybe you’re right.” Victoria broke the hug and made a little rattling sound. Kate heard it instantly.

“Victoria, what do you have in your hand.”

The tears must have replenished themselves as they started falling from Victoria’s eyes again. She was shaky as she opened her right hand to reveal a handful of little round blue pills.

Kate’s eyes went wide. “Victoria, you hand those over right now.”

Victoria didn’t hesitate as she dropped the pills into Kate’s waiting hands.

“What the…   what the fuck were you thinking Victoria?” Kate almost screamed at the sobbing blonde.

If there was one thing in the world at that moment that could sober Victoria Chase up, it was the idea that Kate Marsh, the sweetest, most innocent girl that Victoria had ever known just asked her ‘what the fuck she was thinking’. Victoria was convinced that it was a word that Kate wouldn’t even think about saying, and here she just used it.

Victoria looked even more ashamed now. “I wasn’t Kate. I just know how easily you took your life, and if you with everything you have going on for you, and with how awesome of a person you are, if you could do it what chance did that leave for me?”

Kate struggled to parse the jumbled sentence fragments that Victoria had just said to her, but one thing stood out to her at that moment. “What do you mean how easily I took my life?”

Victoria’s eyes bulged from her head and her hands came up to cover her mouth. “I meant how easy it was for you to think about it.”

_That’s a lie._ Kate’s eyes narrowed at Victoria. “No, no you didn’t Victoria. You implied that I died.”

“Fuck,” Victoria said quietly and sighed. She moved back on the bed to lay down against pillows. She suggested that Kate do the same.

Kate obliged, but only after flushing all of Victoria’s Ambien down the toilet. _Her doctor back home can write her a new prescription._

“I know why Max seems to have PTSD, and her screaming nightmares. Listen, this story isn’t going to make much sense, and you’re probably going to think I’m on drugs, but you have to trust me.”

“I’ve been getting that a lot,” Kate said almost absentmindedly.

“Hmm?”

Kate shook her head. “I’ll explain later. You first.”

Victoria spent the next little while recounting the tale of how she found the duplicate bracelet, and what she had read in the journal after confronting Max. She told of how in the timeline Max had experienced Kate jumped (hence how Max knew to warn Victoria). She told of the many deaths of Chloe Price and of the tornado, and then she told of the dark room.

Kate was shocked and horrified at various different points in the story, but that was to be expected given how crazy Max’s journey had been. When she got to the end she reiterated, “See, such a wonderful light could get consumed by the darkness. How do us stupid people stand us chance?”

“Wow, Christine wasn’t kidding about coming up here at the right time?”

Now it was Victoria’s turn to look confused. “Christine?”

Kate nodded to Victoria. “Have you ever gotten messages from someone named CC?”

Victoria cocked her head to look at Kate a little more seriously. “Yeah. Texts from CC led me to finding out about Max’s problems.”

“I got a message from her tonight, telling me that I needed to hold off on coming back to the room until 11, that I would do for you what you did for me earlier this week.”

A sigh escaped Victoria’s lips. “Well, this CC person certainly knows their stuff.”

Kate laughed and added, “She told me her name was Christine, and she told me a whole bunch of stuff about myself that only you, Max, or I knew, but not any of you two had all the same pieces of information.”

Victoria was paying full attention now. “So we have a name to go with our mysterious messenger.” Victoria went looking for her phone and scrolled through her Facebook contacts, but found no Christine’s. She didn’t expect to though, she’d already searched for people with the initials CC and hadn’t found anyone at all that she knew.

Kate looked at her own phone. “Goodness, it’s already one a.m. Do you think…” She was reluctant to finish the question.

Another deep breath before Victoria responded. “She’s probably just in Ms. Grant’s room. But just in case.” She started typing on her phone.

**Look, I get it if you don’t like me that way, just please let me know you’re safe.**

After brushing her teeth and changing into something more appropriate for bed, and making sure that Victoria was all set herself, Kate started crawling into the second bed.

“Kate?”

“Yeah Victoria?”

“Can, can we sleep in the same bed? I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

Kate bounded out of her bed and into Victoria’s. Before Victoria could even move Kate had nuzzled up against her.

“Hey, I don’t play li…” Victoria laughed. When Kate started to inquire, Victoria just responded, “Never mind. Oh and Kate, thank you.”

With Victoria playing little spoon to Kate, the pair fell asleep.

\---

The next morning the girls awoke to a knock on the door. Victoria was in the easier position to pull herself up and out of bed to get to the door so she did so. When she opened the door she was surprised to see Ms. Grant at the door with four cups of coffee.

Victoria yawned and stretched. “For us, thanks!” She motioned Ms. Grant in.

Ms. Grant entered and shut the door behind her, causing Victoria to frown. Kate had started to wake up at this time to the smell of coffee. “That smells great. Is Max with you?”

Ms. Grant looked a little confused, “I thought she was staying with you last night.”

Dread started to set in for both Victoria and Kate. Victoria spoke up and said, “She left, we thought she went and slept in your room.”

A shake of the head from Ms. Grant changed the dread to terror. “No, I haven’t seen her since we got back to the hotel. Are you saying that Max is gone?”

Victoria scrambled to get over to her phone, Kate did the same thing. Neither of them had received any text messages. They both scrambled, Kate texted Max.

**Max? Where are you? We’re worried.**

Victoria tried calling Max, but the phone rang only once before going to voicemail. She hung up instead of leaving a message and looked over to Ms. Grant.

“Max left here about 10:45 last night. None of us have heard from her. She’s missing.”

With that declaration, Victoria started to cry again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, a Max free chapter. Figured I'd let things with her stew a little while longer. Sorry


	17. Lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate and Victoria search for Max.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: This is the first chapter of this fanfic I’ve struggled to write. I totally get why many fanfiction stories go unfinished—it’s pressure. I’ve really enjoyed that people like/love this story, but admittedly that makes me want to not disappoint. It’s a lot easier to say screw it than it is to actually finish. But by all means keep the high expectations coming—as much as it’s a curse it also feels really damn great!

Victoria Chase was shaking. Her world was collapsing around her in a spectacular way and there was not a thing she could do about it. First she professes her love for someone she spent the past several months calling hipster trash, then said hipster trash ran out on her, then she had to go missing.

She was worried about Max for far more reasons than her feelings for the petite brunette. Max had gone through so much already, and now to go missing after her big break in San Francisco just seemed like the horrible type of nightmare you hear about in the news. Victoria was having none of that, no one would hurt her Max, even if she didn’t want to be her Max.

Victoria whipped out her cell phone, ignoring Kate and Ms. Grant who were busy doing their own things to try and find her. She sent a group text to everyone on her floor.

**Victoria: Not to sound alarmist or anything, but have any of you heard from Max?**

**Dana: No, what’s up, isn’t she with you?**

**Taylor: No, sorry Tori.**

**Juliet: Um, thought you were with her, is something wrong? Need me to investigate?**

**Courtney: Ew, no.**

**Alyssa: Haven’t talked to her since the Vortex Club party.**

**Brooke: Sorry, no. Warren says he hasn’t either.**

**Stella: Has something happened?**

When she didn’t get the response she was hoping to find from anyone, she sighed and sat down on the bed and looked over to Ms. Grant.

“As I expected, police can’t do anything at the moment, but I’ve notified Max’s parents. They haven’t heard from her and aren’t having any luck getting through to her either,” Ms. Grant told them. “Technically she’s an adult and had every right to separate from us, but I’m worried that neither of you ladies know where she went. Anything you can tell me about what happened before she left Victoria?

Victoria felt Kate’s eyes on her. Taking a deep breath she says, “I think I upset her, but I don’t know why that would cause her to just disappear like she did.”

Ms. Grant nodded and went to the room phone to call to the front desk.

Kate came over to Victoria and put an arm around the pixie-haired blonde. “Come on Victoria, you know this isn’t your fault in any way at all.”

“So? I feel like it is, that Max wouldn’t be gone if it weren’t for me.”

Kate’s other arm wrapped around Victoria. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a worrier?”

Victoria smiled for just a moment and laughed. “It’s been brought up a few times.”

Ms. Grant hung up the phone a few minutes later. “I’ve talked with hotel security and they’re going to see what they can tell about her from their systems. In the meantime I want you two to stay put.”

A frown crossed Victoria’s face. “No. We’re going out looking!”

“We are?” Kate asked, a bit unsure.

“Yes. We know the galleries that Max wanted to check out, I say we go there and flash her picture and ask if anyone has seen her.”

Ms. Grant frowned now too. “Well, you two are here of your own accord so I can’t stop you. Check in every half hour at least?”

Kate looked a little more enthusiastic. “I’ll be on that.”

With that decided the three women parted ways. Kate and Victoria hailed a taxi. It didn’t take long, mostly a flashing of the plastic for Victoria to convince the driver to stay with them for as long as needed.

They went back to the most obvious place to look—Zeitgeist.

When they walked in they noticed that the same girl from last night was manning the welcome counter this morning.

“Excuse me?” Kate said a little timidly for someone on a search and possibly rescue mission.

“Yes?” the girl responded before looking over. “Oh, you two were the ladies here with Miss Caulfield last night.”

“That’s right,” Victoria responded. “She hasn’t been here this morning has she?”

The girl shook her head, “I’ve not seen her. I wanted to actually give her some good news. An offer has been made to buy her picture if she’s willing. Mr. Lee wants to put it on the cover of a magazine.”

Both Kate and Victoria looked rather impressed by this. “Wow!” was Kate’s only response.

“Thanks. We got separated and thought she might come back here.” Victoria scribbled her number on the pack of a pamphlet and handed it to the girl. “We think her phone may have run out of power, so if she does could you call me.”

A look of worry crossed the girl’s face. “Yeah, sure. I hope she’s alright, and tell her to give us a call later.”

The girls nodded and headed out to the taxi and their next destination.

The same thing happened all over. They flashed Max’s picture around, and of course got no one who had seen her. They left a lot of numbers but not a single one ever called back.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon when they decided to head back to the hotel. Ms. Grant had long been able to confirm that Max had left the hotel on foot at around 11 the night before, but nothing after that point.

The taxi pulled back up at 5:20 and they got out. Victoria didn’t even notice or care how much the day’s taxi ride cost. Money was the least of her concerns. The two girls, defeated in their search for Max went over to Ms. Grant, who gave them reassuring hugs.

“I’m sure she’s fine ladies. Watch, she’ll probably pull up in the next taxi that comes through here.”

“Wouldn’t that be weird,” Kate said as a taxi pulled up.

“Yeah, weird,” Victoria echoed.

The taxi opened and its passenger got out.

_What the fuck?_

Ms. Grant couldn’t have been more right as the three women realized it was Maxine Caulfield who got out of the Taxi. Both Kate and Victoria looked to Ms. Grant with their mouths wide open in shock and found that Ms. Grant was similarly afflicted. Max had looked more peaceful than Victoria had ever seen her.

Max looked up, a little stunned to find her three travelling companions waiting for her outside. She cringed a little and walked over to them. “Hey.”

None of them knew how to respond to that oddity, so Victoria took it upon herself. “Hey back.”

She looked more timid than she had in a week, but Max looked right at Ms. Grant and said, “I’m sorry. I had an emergency with a relative here in San Francisco. My phone died otherwise I would have let you know.”

Ms. Grant took a deep breath and breathed a sigh of relief. “Now I understand why Principal Wells drank as much as he did, you kids can be a handful and I only have three of you right now.”

Max smiled at that. “I need to rest. I’m sure you’re hungry but I just ate, so if you want to go out to dinner that’s fine. If you two want to come with me that’s fine too.”

“Room service,” was Victoria’s simple response. Kate nodded and the three girls started to make their way to their room, while Ms. Grant made her way to the bar.

Victoria was still shaking as they entered the hotel room. Once the door was closed Victoria turned to Max on the verge of tears.

“Victoria, I need you to do something for me. Get out your cell phone.”

Unsure of what Max was getting at, she grabbed her phone out of her purse.

Max suddenly looked a little woozy as she said, “Now look at the group text you sent earlier when you were worried about me. The third entry is Juliet responding, Um, thought you were with her, is something wrong? Need me to investigate?” She looked a little more woozy, “And the second to last entry is Brooke telling you no, and that Warren hadn’t heard from me either.”

Victoria checked her phone to see that Max was exactly right.

“How?” A moment after asking Victoria’s eyes went big. “You mean?” Victoria sat down on the bed, the picture becoming so much clearer to her now.

Max made sure that Victoria couldn’t misinterpret her response. Max walked right over to Victoria, grabbed her face with a little more force than she might have normally used and kissed her in a way that put most movie kisses to shame.

Kate for her part had to look away—not because two girls kissing was bad, but because it seemed like such a private moment that she was embarrassed to be part of it.

Victoria had kissed her fair share of people, but none had been like this one that Max was planting on her right now. The initial shock of it subsided into enjoyment, and finally disappointment as Max finally pulled away and broke the most electrifying kiss she had ever had.

“Wowser,” Victoria said.

“Hey, that’s my line,” Max said back to her with a smile.  Victoria stuck her tongue out in response.

Kate looked confused. “What’s going on, I think I missed something, before that something I didn’t need to see.”

Max laughed a little at that. “It’s a long story Kate.”

Victoria looked up, finally catching a little bit of composure after that earth-shattering kiss. “I explained some of it to her already, when you went missing.”

“Ah,” Max said, looking a bit sheepish. “I know what you went through last night Victoria, and I’m truly sorry that I put you through it and I hope you can forgive me in time.” She looked over at Kate. “My rewind power came back when I leaned in to kiss Victoria last night, I ran from the room freaking, not realizing that it was at the exact moment Victoria professed feelings for me.”

Kate nodded in understanding. “Well, I’m glad you’re back. But what are you going to do?”

Max shrugged her shoulders. “I still have a lot to figure out.”

Victoria shook her head still confused herself. “Wait, then where the fuck have you been this whole time that you had us worried.”

Taking a deep breath Max laid back on the bed. “Order your room service, this is going to be a very weird story.”

 


	18. Distorted Simulacrum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max has run away from the hotel, how will she respond to regaining her powers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, hope you enjoy.

Max Caulfield sat in an alley watching a cat walk by. She wasn't quite sure what time it was anymore, she only knew that it was now Sunday morning. She also knew it was chilly out, and she was scared.

When the cat finished walking past the alley Max raised her left hand up and the telltale blur of time I happening enveloped the world around her. When she put her hand down she watched the same cat take the same walk past.

_If I were in the Matrix right now this would look like the ultimate glitch. Maybe agents are coming for me._

Again she raised her hand, again with the blue, and again the cat walked by. And for a third and fourth time she completed this little dance of the walking cat--not because she liked watching the cat walk, but so she could be absolutely sure that her powers were back.

She was about to raise her hand to do it a fifth time when she got a text message. She looked down at her phone--it was the one person she wanted to hear from most at that moment.

**CC: You can stop doing that anytime you know.**

Max rolled her eyes. That's real helpful. Wait a second…

Max texted back. **How do you know what I'm doing?**

**Message failed to send.** M

_Of course it did._

Another chime indicating that there was a response.

**CC: Because I know you better than you know yourself. I get it, you’re scared. I don’t blame you for doing so.**

“Well, that makes it all better than, doesn’t it stupid mysterious text message?”

**CC: Of course it doesn’t, but it’s still the truth.**

She sighed and shook her head. She had to be going crazy from the grief of losing Chloe--that had to be it.

She knew it wouldn’t send but she had to anyway, just to test her theory of going crazy. She typed on her phone. **How do I know I’m not going crazy?**

The message of course failed to send but a moment later she still received a response.

**CC: Put your hands in your pockets.**

Max could only blink upon reading that. She was very skeptical, but she did as she was asked anyway. Just about the time she was getting really annoyed it happened. The world blurred around her and time was clearly rewinding. Even that damn cat just walked backwards and was now crossing the alley like it had done so many times before.

_Holy fuck, I didn’t do that, how did it…_

Before Max could even finish her thought her phone chimed again. She pulled her hands out of her pocket quickly to look at the message.

**CC: You assume too much Maxine Caulfield.**

Max sighed as she read the message.

**CC: Yes, I know, Max, never Maxine.**

She was of course stunned. How do you talk to, how do you deal with someone who seems to know what you’re thinking and doing even before you do. Another chime.

**CC: I’ve arranged a ride for you. Leave the alley and follow the cat. A car will be waiting for you, I’ve already paid for the ride. We need to meet.**

Max was a little hesitant, but she got up and followed the cat. She wasn’t completely sure about this whole getting into a strange car at one thirty in the morning, but that’s what rewind powers were for, right?

Almost after turning right out of the alley a car pulled up to the curve and rolled down it’s window. “Max?” the driver asked.

She nodded and he motioned her to get in. She realized what it was immediately—Uber wasn’t something she had used, but she heard of it before. She got in and pretty soon they were off to their destination. It was a quick, quiet trip.

Soon the car was dropping her off at a place called Pinecrest Diner. It wasn’t quite a standalone diner of the past like Two Whales, but Max did have to smile that this CC certainly did know what Max liked. The driver asked her to rate him highly and she nodded and he drove off. Max stepped inside not sure what to expect.

As she entered her cell phone once again went off.

**CC: Fifth table to the right.**

Max looked around, a much larger version of the Two Whales for sure, and still a decent crowd for 2 a.m. She turned to the right and started walking toward her destination. Seeing her table she took note of the appearance of the girl who was sitting there. Brown hair past her shoulder and all swept to a ponytail that crossed over her left shoulder, a hoodie really similar in color to her own were the two most obvious things. She stopped right behind the girl, took a deep breath and rushed to the seat across from her in one quick motion.

She blinked several times as she took in the girl, though she didn’t really have to observe anything at all. It was her. She was staring at her own face back at her, though there were slight differences. The color of her freckles were different, and her eyes were just a shade brighter than her own, but it was still her face looking back at her.

“Oh great, I’m back in the nightmare. Or am I still in it?” Max deadpanned.

Christine smiled at Max. “No, you’re not in the nightmare, this is very much real, but it’s oh so much more complicated than what it seems.”

Max took note that Christine’s voice was different from her own. She’d heard her own voice on video before so she was a little bit surprised. “So if this isn’t the nightmare, then what exactly is going on here?”

Another smile from Christine as she took a drink from her glass of orange juice. “Well, to put it in as simple terms as possible Max, I’m your baby sister Christine.”

Eyebrows arching, Max was somewhere between confusion and disbelief. She looked Christine over some more and just based on the features, skin, and the large diamond ring on her left hand, Max had a realization.

“How can you be my baby sister, you look like you’re older than me. And quite frankly, you look way too much like me to just be my sister.”

A nod from Christine. “You’re right of course. I’ll get back to the details in a moment, but here’s the deal. Did you ever wonder why mom, dad, well anyone in the family doesn’t have an announcement of your birth from a newspaper?”

Eyebrows still arched, Max just kind of stared at Christine. “They said they must have lost them, or they’re just buried in a box.”

Christine sighed and frowned. Shaking her head she looked back up and spoke again. “If you look for birth announcements for September 21, 1995, you’ll find a birth announcement for Christine and Maxine Caulfield, born Arcadia Bay, Oregon.”

“So we’re twins then?” Max asked, interrupting.

She nodded and continued. “However, if you go just a little bit further down the page it will also have death notices. Under the death notice it will read Christine Caulfield, Arcadia Bay, Oregon, died September 21, 1995.”

Forget the eyebrows, Max’s eyes bulged upon hearing this. “So you’re telling me I was part of twins and my sister, you, died?”

“I know, heavy huh?” Christine cracked a smile again. “Sorry, I’ve kind of become a fan of Back to the Future lately for some strange reason.”

Max smiled at that too before her brain got back to work puzzling things over. “Wait, if you died…”

“Then how am I here?” Christine finished for Max. “Well, that actually relates to the nightmare. But you should order something if you’re hungry.”

Confusion crossed Max’s face but then the waitress walked up and filled Max’s cup with coffee. She ordered herself an omelet, mostly to compare it to the one at the Two Whales. Once the waitress was gone she turned back to Christine. “How so?”

“You remember in the nightmare when you were yelling at yourself about all the Max’s you left behind.”

Max held her head with her right hand. “Time travel nightmare semantics and tenses suck!”

“I know, I know,” Christine offered. “Well here’s the thing, she wasn’t completely wrong. This multiverse theory says that every action, every consequences gets played out in a separate reality. Think when you’re playing a video game and you reload a save to try something different. Sort of the same concept except that the character who died stays dead and you’re actually creating a new one.”

“I still don’t get how this explains anything,” Max said, a little frustration growing in her voice.

“Drink your coffee and I’ll explain, I know how we get without coffee.”

Max did as ordered and took a few sips from her coffee, and admittedly Max did start feeling better.

“So here’s what I’ve managed to piece together. In your universe, life as you know it, you lived and Christine died. In my universe it was the other way, Maxine was stillborn and I, Christine, lived.”

“Basically you’re me but with a different name because of what happened before we were born?”

“Yes,” Christine said with a smile, nodding. “You’re also right about me being older. I have travelled not only into another universe but back in time. My body is probably twenty-one or twenty-two, but as I know time it’s 2015.”

Max was finally understanding the basics of it. Apparently Christine had been jumping around in time and universes. “And you’ve never caused any storms?”

Christine sighed. “Just the one that happened when I tried to save Chloe.”

Max frowned. “So Chloe died in your timeline as well. Does she always?”

A deep breath from Christine. “No Max. I’ve been travelling around, observing other Max and Christine Caulfields. There are universes where you and Chloe lived but the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay.”

Max gasped at this. “So at least one other Max wouldn’t sacrifice Chloe.”

A nod. “I’ve seen universes where it was me and Chloe who lived and Arcadia Bay was still destroyed. I’ve seen them where we both live and never gain this useful yet terrible ability at all.”

“Yeah what’s up with…”

“We’ll get there,” Christine says, cutting Max off. “You, me, and Chloe surviving over Arcadia Bay. Ones where we both live until the storm and one of us dies and the other doesn’t. That’s a hard one. I’ve seen them where you get shot instead of Chloe, or I get shot instead of Chloe.”

Max sat there stunned. She hadn’t considered all those options. How much harder must it have been for a Max or Christine that lost the other but kept Chloe because of the storm.

“I’ve even seen them where Jefferson succeeds and we get murdered.”

A shudder went through both girls at the same time.

“So there’s not much for happy endings out there, is there?” Max asked.

Christine shrugged. “It all depends on what you consider a happy ending.” She looked down at her left hand.

“So you lost Chloe, and you got married?”

A smile crossed Christine’s face. “I did, yes.”

Max’s eyes narrowed, not sure how to respond to that. “So is your last name still Caulfield?”

Christine fished into her pocket and pulled out a wallet. Grabbing her license, she slid it over the table to Max.

Picking it up, Max immediately saw the date on the license. Issued April 23, 2015. It was only as she glanced over that she noticed the last name.

“Christine Chase? So you’re married to…”

“Yes, my darling Victoria.”

Max quirked an eyebrow at that. “She just professed her love to me before…” Her eyes opened wide and she quietly said, “oh no.”

Christine reached out and grabbed Max’s hand. “She’s okay. Kate is taking care of her. You’ll have plenty of time to explain it to her later.”

A sigh of relief came from Max. “I didn’t even realize until now that because my rewind came back that I ran out screaming right after she…” Max trailed off, not finishing her sentence.

A smile crossed Christine’s face. “Same thing happened to me. She forgives.”

“So if you’re married to Christine, does that mean we’re…?”

Christine pursed her lips. “Well, I’ll tell you this. I’ve seen either of us get together with Chloe, or Victoria, or Kate.”

Max understandably looked surprised by that.

“Many iterations of us ended up with Warren. Nathan too. And in the only iterations I’ve ever wanted to hurt someone in, we ended up in a relationship with Mark Jefferson.”

At that point Max looked like she wanted to be sick.

“I felt the same way Max, though you may want to put that out of your mind.”

Her omelet had arrived and was placed down in front of her along with the other food. Max thanked her and Christine continued.

“I don’t think it’s about being gay or straight. I think in the end we fall in love with a person and that’s all that we care about it. If Chloe survives, it’s her. If not there’s a myriad of other options so honestly, don’t worry about labels.”

Max couldn’t help but grin. “Now that sounds exactly like me. Us. Whatever.” She started to dig into her food.

“We got married in January and I couldn’t be happier. This is actually the longest and first real jump I’ve made since we got married, I just had to though.”

Max put her fork down, chewed, and then looked at Christine more closely. “Why’s that?”

“Because we are linked Max. From what I’ve gathered we are the Max and Christine that are most alike. I knew that you were going to have a very tough time getting through this week so I came and texted people, watched out for you and your friends, and basically made sure that what needed to happen, happened.”

Max was getting a little suspicious at this point. “And no storm is coming?”

Christine shook her head. “No, this is payback.”

“How?”

A wistful sigh came from Christine. “Because two years ago I rewound time for a week and had to go back into a picture to let my best friend in the world die. At a time when I needed someone around to support and make sure that things got taken care of, someone did. That was you Max?”

“Me?”

“Yes Max, at some point in a few years you’ll gain the ability to jump to other timelines like I did. And you’ll find me, poor Christine freaking out and heartbroken over the loss of her best friend, confusion because of her new friend, and outright fear when her powers return. You do the same job for me.”

Max’s head hurt, she knew that she wasn’t rewinding but that was quite complicated.

“I know it’s a paradox Max, but it seems to work.”

A shake of her head before asking, “So why did the powers come back?”

Christine looked around for a moment, as though she were thinking how to put it. “Who said they ever went away. After Chloe died you suppressed them yourself with your grief and anger. Once you got past the week entirely and were with Victoria, you were so relaxed and starting to heal that they became apparent again.”

“So do we live the rest of our lives with these powers?”

A shrug from Christine. I only know about the next few years. I’m sure at some point we’ll learn more, but until then we just kind of have to deal with what we got. On the plus side it makes a relationship with anyone you choose that much better since you’ll never say the wrong thing.

Max laughed at that. “So where do we go from here?”

A smile from Christine. No hurry, I say we just talk, find out what’s the same, what’s different, and when we’ll meet in the future again.

Max beamed at Christine, “I’d like that sis.”


	19. Dirty Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria feels uneasy about the existence of Christine.

Victoria and Kate listened to Max tell her tale of meeting Christine. Kate for her part was in awe the entire time and even though she seemed to have a hard time reconciling how it worked with her faith, she seemed to accept it. Victoria for her part looked far more skeptical. Her lips remained pursed for most of the story. When Max finished talking, Kate was the one who went straight to the questions.

“So did Christine have a different style than you? Was he basically you but older?”

Victoria took a deep breath and stood up, surprising both Kate and Max.

“I’m sorry,” Victoria said with a frown on her face. I have to go for a walk.”

She had to quickly look away from Max. Seeing how Max looked almost hurt at Victoria’s sudden need to leave pained the tall blonde as well. Before Max could say anything Victoria was out of the hotel room.

She grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket, and even though she knew it wouldn’t work she went to the entries where Christine had been texting her. She sent a simple text. **I want to meet.**

To Victoria’s surprise, her phone didn’t report that the text message couldn’t be sent. A moment later she got a response.

**There’s a coffee bar across the street from the hotel. I’ll meet you there.**

Victoria raised her eyebrows, but she couldn’t really complain since she was getting exactly what she wanted.

It took Victoria only a few minutes before she was seated at a private table at the coffee bar. Her heart skipped a beat when Christine walked in—she was exactly how Max described and Victoria’s own infatuation with Max couldn’t tell the difference. Christine quickly spotted the blonde and made her way over to sit down with Victoria.

Christine had changed her clothes compared to what Max described. Christine looked a lot less hipster and a lot more stylish—though the cashmere sweater she was wearing was a little too much.

“Hello Victoria,” she said, the slight difference with Max’s voice just barely noticeable.

“The now famous Christine Chase,” Victoria deadpanned.

“Not yet, that’ll be a few years,” Christine said with a straight face before breaking into a smile. “Relax Victoria, I’m not here to cause problems. I know you want to speak because you have concerns.”

Victoria pursed her lips and studied Christine for a moment, seeing all the physical differences that Max had described to her. Finally she spoke. “Do you already know how this conversation is going to turn out?”

Christine shook her head. “No, this is my first time going through this conversation.”

“So me, I mean other Victoria, she didn’t talk to anyone about this whole situation? Max made it sound like this is a similar event.”

Another shake of Christine’s head. “Well she did, but I wasn’t there to witness it.”

“You don’t know what my concerns ahead of time are?” Victoria asked, eyes focused very intently on Christine.

“Well, I have guesses, but that’s only because they’re the same questions I sat picturing Vic… my Victoria asking in her situation.”

“I see,” Victoria said, her analytical had firmly on. “What about your rewind?”

Christine sighed a little. “I won’t use it Victoria, I promise. Besides, Max would notice, probably setting off Kate or whoever else she is with and you’d know later.”

Another nod from Victoria. “Alright. Don’t get offended, but I kind of hate your existence.”

This time Christine looked a little bit caught off guard—perhaps even a little hurt. Victoria quickly realized that even though she wasn’t the Victoria that Christine had married, she was still Victoria Chase in looks and voice, and that it’d have to hurt having the love of your life saying they hated your existence, even if it was way more complicated than that.

“Can I ask why?”

Victoria nodded and answered. “Because I don’t like the idea of destiny, that our paths are predetermined and that there are certain things that will happen, or that you could manipulate to make happen.”

Christine tilted her head quizzically toward Victoria. “Such as what?”

Victoria sighed and closed her eyes. “I really like you.” A sigh. “I mean Max. I don’t know if it’s something that is supposed to happen. But you being here, a sort-of alternate version of Max and married to an alternate version of me makes it feel like Max is going to be pushed to being with me because it’s what happened with you.”

A slow nod of understanding from Christine. “So you feel like me being here is like forcing Max to like you back.”

A deep breath and a nod from Victoria.

“I didn’t tell her that she had to be with you to be happy. There’s so many different people that any of us could end up with in parallel dimensions that she’s better off just figuring out what works for her.”

Victoria opened her eyes and just assessed Christine again. “So you didn’t tell her to kiss me when we met back up.”

She could tell that Christine was caught by surprise with the question. “Wait, she kissed you when she rejoined you back at the hotel?”

“That’s right.”

“Wowsers,” Christine said, and Victoria did manage to smile just a little at that. “I didn’t see that coming, no. After my talk with Max here in San Francisco during the Everyday Heroes event, I didn’t kiss Vic… my Victoria upon returning to the hotel. In my case I was always too afraid of offending Kate.”

Victoria didn’t expect that answer. “So no prompting from you to…”

Christine adamantly shook her head. “Not at all. If she chose to kiss you when she returned she’s more gutsy than I am, and she did that of her own accord.”

_Wow!_ Victoria looked speechless for a moment before managing to compose herself. “Alright then, I need to know about your relationship with Victoria.”

A frown crossed Christine’s face. “You don’t think I’m just going to give you information about the future?”

“I don’t need or want anything important, I just want to understand some of the dynamics. Like has it been easy?”

A relieved smile replaced the frown. “No Victoria,” Christine said while shaking her head. “No relationship is easy. There were a lot of fights, not so much at the beginning but in the middle, and we still have fights to this day.”

A confused looking Victoria looked back at Christine. “But what about your rewind, that dirty magic that you two have in common?”

Understanding seemed to dawn on Christine’s face at the question. “Have I used the rewind power with Victoria? I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t.”

Victoria frowned in response.

“But I will tell you this, it was only for stupid little shit that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Believe it or not neither Max nor I are perfect. There’s a reason that we didn’t even have a three point G.P.A. We have an IEP for a reason.”

Victoria’s eyes bulged at that. “I didn’t know,” she said quietly, a look of guilt now.

“I know you didn’t. But I never thought about rewinding time during our big fights. I would never rewind time for things that mattered. It was a promise I made to myself and to her. By us fighting she would know that I wasn’t just manipulating things to keep them perfect.”

A slight nod from a guilt-ridden Victoria.

“Believe it or not, this whole rewinding time kind of sucks when it comes to relationships. Even if we were to rewind things to make life happier for you it eats us up inside.”

“Oh,” Victoria muttered. “So I don’t have to worry about Max?”

Christine shrugged. “I don’t know Victoria. As alike as we are and as linked as our two timelines seem to be, I don’t know the future. She might be willing to rewind the big stuff to keep you happy, I don’t know. There’s already differences that I can note.”

“Like what Chris?” Victoria blurted out.

“Well for starters, I know how much Max hates being called Maxine, but I like my full name, thanks.”

“Sorry Christine.”

“It’s alright Tori,” Christine said with a smile. “Sorry, Victoria. Well, I can tell you this, I know it’s your Max that came to see me when I was in San Francisco. But she wasn’t called Max Chase or Maxine Chase.”

Victoria looked curious. “She still called herself Max Caulfield. She was married, though her hair was similar in length to how it is now. We’re different people Victoria, that’s all I can really tell you so how she’ll respond to something is going to be different.”

A smile crossed Victoria’s face. “Thank you Christine, that’s what I needed to hear I think.”

“You may not be my Victoria, but I still have a weak spot where you’re concerned. In the end I know how wonderful of a person you are and someday you’ll be very happy with someone. Whether that’s Max, or someone else remains to be seen, but you know what, enjoy the ride Chase.”

Victoria was beaming now. “Yes ma’am. Any advice?”

Christine was standing up. “Go out to dinner, or stay in and order food. Like I said, just have fun.”

Victoria stood up too and the two women hugged. “Thank you Christine.”

“Always.”

They broke the embrace and Christine made her leave. The conversation hadn’t taken that long and Victoria quickly made her way back to the hotel.

Entering the room she found Max and Kate still talking. The two girls stopped and looked up when Victoria entered. Victoria smiled and walked over to Max and sat down on the bed next to her. After a moment of awkward silence Kate resumed the conversation they were having and Victoria put her arm around Max, leaning into the brunette. She didn’t look directly at Max’s face, but she could see the smile as Max’s hand reached up to hold Victoria’s.


	20. Brave New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls get ready to leave San Francisco, and Christine pays one last visit.

Monday morning brought the alarms of two cell phones going off at the same time. As Max started to stretch she had to be careful to not hit Victoria. She started to realize that she was a little colder than normal as she didn’t sleep in her usual shorts/shirt combo. She snuggled up her bra and panty clad body against Victoria and smiled before looking over to the other bed and saw that Kate was already gone. This made Max frown.

After their talk about Christine and Kate asking many more questions about her existence or lack of existence in the timeline that Max knew, the rest of the night had been a bit more awkward. Once Victoria returned they went out for dinner as a group. That part was fine. When they got back to the hotel it was time for Max and Victoria to start exploring the feelings they were having.

Max cringed as she realized that her and Victoria had totally ignored that Kate was there. She reached for her phone and started texting.

**Hey Kate, sorry about last night, I feel like such an asshole.**

Victoria pulled Max in closer. Max wasn’t sure if Victoria was really awake yet, so she did what came naturally to her, she gave Victoria a quick kiss on the lips.

“Is that all,” Victoria said, her voice sounding happy. “I thought I taught you better than that last night.”

Max grinned and cellphone still in hand wrapped her arms around Victoria. “You were an excellent teacher Miss Chase.”

That’s why Max felt bad. The rest of the night was a very long makeout session between the experienced Victoria and the inexperienced Max. Max had only two kisses before last night, both with Chloe. The short peck after being dared to kiss her, and of course the kiss as the storm raged toward the city. Another pang of guilt went through Max. “Victoria…” Her phone beeped.

**Kate: It’s okay Max, I’ll be back real soon.**

Max read the message and sighed. She started to separate herself from a now pouting Victoria and she rummaged through her suitcase for clothes to wear. “Kate will be back in a few minutes.”

Victoria was still pouting, and her eyes shrewdly looked at Max. “What’s wrong Max?”

Max finished putting on a pair of jeans and sat back down on the bed as she put on a shirt. “Last night was great Victoria.”

“Why do I sense a but coming?”

A sigh escaped Max’s lips. Before she could answer there was a knock on the door and Kate entered. Her hands were full and she wasn’t alone.

“Look who I ran into down stairs,” Kate exclaimed happily as she set down the tray with four coffee cups. Christine stood right behind her with a smile on her face as she surveyed the hotel room.

“Hello again Christine,” Victoria greeted as she remained under covers trying to dress.

Both Max and Kate looked to Victoria. Victoria hadn’t talked about her walk but apparently she met Christine during it, something that came as a surprise to Max at this moment.

“I guess I don’t need to introduce you then,” Max said.

“I shouldn’t have come up, but Kate insisted, and how do you say no to bun-bun?”

“I know, right?” Max replied, smiling a little as she saw Kate blush over the unliked nickname.

“Hey,” Kate said, “I never got to meet Christine and I didn’t know Victoria had. Besides, I figured you two might want to say goodbye.”

“See, she’s just too sweet for words,” Christine said as she grabbed one of the coffees. Taking a sip she added, “I forgot how decent coffee here actually is.”

Max frowned again looking at Kate. “Yeah, and Victoria and I were jerks for ignoring her and just making out last night.”

“Well Max,” Kate said with a serious look on her face, “It was a bit uncomfortable, and it definitely was sinning.” When Max stared Kate stuck her tongue out to indicate she was kidding. “I was a little bit upset about it but I feel much better.”

“Let me guess, Christine,” Victoria said as she pulled off the covers and was at least partially dressed.

“Guilty as charged,” Max’s doppelganger replied.

Max looked back at her phone as it beeped and frowned. “Ms. Grant will be here in five minutes.”

The girls all frowned, they knew that Christine couldn’t be here when that came.

“That’s my cue to go, though before I do,” she looked at Max, who knew exactly what to do. She grabbed her Polaroid camera and Christine pulled out a similar one. Getting real close and hugging, they both took selfies of the two of them together. They both did the distinctive-if-not-useful picture shaking thing and grinned.

They shared a long hug and Max simply said, “Thank you.”

Christine squeezed harder at that and when they broke said, “We should get all four of us in a picture.”

Victoria grabbed her camera and said, “I’ve got that.” Once it was ready the four girls lined up, Victoria and Christine on the outsides, and Max next to Victoria and Kate. Once the digital camera took the picture Victoria checked it out and smiled at it.

Max wasn’t sure how to respond to the idea of Christine leaving. She felt weird about her older counterpart, but she also wished she could spend so much more time with her. But before they knew it she was gone and Victoria was in the bathroom changing.

“It really is okay Max. I know this last week has been rather trying for you. And even though it did feel awkward, you seemed truly happy. I know with everything I’ve gone through the last few weeks any happy moments you can seize on are important.”

Max rushed over and hugged Kate. “You are amazing Kate, don’t ever let anyone think or let you feel otherwise.”

Kate hugged back with a large grin on her face. She jumped a little when a third set of arms wrapped around her back and side as Victoria had joined the hug. “Agreed. If they do just sic me on them and I’ll make sure they get their just desserts.”

Another smile from Kate and she went to finish up her packing, knowing Ms. Grant would be here any moment.

“Max, what’s up, we got interrupted earlier.”

Kate for her part frowned. She knew what was coming and felt bad.

“Last night was amazing Victoria. You’re an awesome kisser, especially considering how bad I have to have been.” Max wasn’t lying, Victoria knew just how to move around Max’s mouth and how to explore her. She knew Victoria had never been with another girl, but man could she kiss.

Victoria shrugged and smiled, “You’re a fast learner Caulfield.”

Max blushed a little at that. “Well, I think we should slow down a little bit. I mean, just a week ago I was in love with Chloe and, and…”

Victoria put a finger over Max’s lips to hush her. Max expected her to be sad, or frowning, or pouty, but she was smiling.

“I knew this point would come Max. This has to be the most confusing two weeks of your life. I REALLY like you Max, and I’m not going anywhere. Whatever speed, whenever you’re ready I’m here.”

Max melted at that. She never imagined that Victoria could be so sweet, so understanding. She stood on her toes and gave Victoria a quick kiss and smiled. “Thank you.”

Ms. Grant was knocking on the door and it didn’t take long before they were all packed up, checked out, and heading to the airport. Once they dumped off all but carry-ons, Max held hands with both Kate and Victoria as they walked through the airport.

On the plane Max took the window seat and was staring out. Victoria sat next to her and Kate across the aisle with Ms. Grant. Her left hand reached out to grab Victoria’s as they took off and Max was content as she flew back to her Blackwell home, unsure of what life had in store for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't read into how I ended it. This is the end of the first episode of Moving Forward. Chapter 21 will kick off the next story arc


	21. Costumed Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dana's Halloween party has finally arrived.

**2 ½ weeks Later.**

For the first time in a while Max had a full day of happiness. The last two weeks of class had been a struggle for her to try to return to normal. It certainly didn’t help that there was no replacement photography teacher. Max came to school to hone her photography skills before going off to some pretentious art college. She hoped that Mark Jefferson would have been a great influence on her, but it was her meddling that had much more influence on him.

It wasn’t even as simple as the Jefferson scandal being talked about in Arcadia Bay and at the Zeitgeist in San Francisco. Jefferson’s actions had blown up into a national story, the media vultures had descended on Arcadia Bay and one couldn’t leave the Blackwell Campus without being accosted by some new media organization in some far away place they either hadn’t heard of nor cared about.

On the positive side David Madsen had finally returned at the beginning of the week. Max felt bad, every time she saw a glimpse of him she ran the other direction. She knew it would be hard for both of them to encounter each other again at Blackwell, so she tried to save it for as long as humanly possible.

Despite the awkward avoiding of both David and more news vans than she could count, things were returning to normal at Blackwell finally. The frenzy was dying down as most of the ‘models’ in Jefferson’s collection had been identified. But more importantly than all that, as far as Max was concerned, was that it was finally Halloween, her favorite holiday.

While there were some students who dressed up for the day of classes, Max wasn’t among them. Like the majority of students she was saving hers for Dana’s party, being held in the gym. As much as she was excited for her own costume (a steampunk take on a gender-bent Link from The Legend of Zelda), she was insanely curious to see what Kate and Victoria were dressing up as. Victoria was tight lipped (about her costume) and much to Max’s surprise, Kate used the word ‘sexy’ as part of her costume teasing.

Max sighed internally. She had been spending a lot of her free time with Victoria, but only during waking hours. Victoria seemed to have conceded the idea of sleeping in the same bed as Max to Kate since their return from San Francisco. She appreciated why Victoria was keeping her distance, letting her figure things out instead of trying to push forward anyway, but it still felt weird to Max. Also as far as Max knew, nobody else was getting messages from CC anymore either, so that was kind of sad as well.

Max’s phone dinged for a text message. Checking it, she saw that Kate was ready for Max to see her costume. Grabbing the last of her things, Max left the room and went across the hall to Kate’s, giving Victoria’s door a sidelong look. She knocked a few times and then entered Kate’s room.

“So, what do you think of my sexy bunny?” Kate asked as Max finally saw her.

For her part, Max was speechless. And not because Kate was dressed out of her element, because she wasn’t. Kate was in a slightly form fitting Easter Bunny body with her face painted and her hair done up with ears in them. Kate looked downright adorable, but she definitely didn’t fit the title ‘sexy bunny’. That however was the part she loved most about Kate, her innocence.

“Um,” Max started. How was she to put it. “I wouldn’t use that phrase at the Halloween party, okay?”

Kate frowned a bit at this. “Why not?”

Max pulled out her phone and quickly searched for a ‘sexy bunny costume’ that would illustrate her point, and then showed the picture on the phone to Kate.

She started getting concerned when Kate’s face turned totally red, and the bunny girl looked ready to faint. “I see what you mean Max, though I’d call those sinning bunnies, not sexy bunnies. But yeah, I don’t think I’ll talk about it.” Kate shook her head and made sure to look away from the picture still up on Max’s phone. “Think Victoria’s ready yet?”

As if perfect timing, both Kate and Max’s phones beeped for a text message. It was Victoria telling them to come over when ready. Kate finished grabbing her things and the two girls were off.

Arriving next door they knocked and entered. Victoria’s lights were out, and before she shut the door Kate turned them on and both girls let out audible gasps.

Victoria was blue. Not the sad kind of blue, but the very literal definition of the word. From head to toe in blue body paint, with tan shorts, a black shirt that revealed her cleavage, and a blue long haired wig. Her fingers were held together to look like a pistol.

“I know I don’t glow in the dark, but how do I look?”

Victoria’s take on Bluberry (the little statue behind her) was pretty spot on. Max glanced over at Kate who looked rather impressed. Max felt her own cheeks burning. Victoria looked hot, though the blue hair probably didn’t hurt anything either.

Kate was the first to speak. “Wow, that must have taken you all day! You look great Victoria.”

Victoria smiled and dropped the pose. “Thanks Kate. Nice bunny costume.” She looked to Max, “Thoughts Max?”

She was still a bit speechless, but she finally responded. “I don’t think your costume could be any more flawless than it already is Victoria. Damn nice job.”

Victoria blushed a little, though nobody noticed it. The last few weeks had been hard for her too. She found herself liking Max more and more with all the time they spent together, enough so that she had to ask Kate to take the overnight shifts because both the temptation and the pain of longing were too much for her.

“Shall we go?” Kate asked. Both Max and Victoria nodded and the three locked arms on their way out of the dorm, Kate in the middle, Max to the right and Victoria on the left.

They walked to the party, three disparate costumes unlike how they showed up in style to the Vortex Club party after Chloe’s death. Arriving at the gym Max was impressed with how Dana had gone all out in decorating. Blackwell no longer looked like the stately school that was a combination of modern and Victorian architecture, but like an older, haunted house.

“How did she do this?” Max asked looking around in wonder, a little sad that she didn’t have her camera with her now.

“Come on Max, you know that Dana is quite talented,” Kate replied to Max.

Victoria nodded in agreement. They walked through the hallway and into the gym where the dancefloor was set up and music was playing. They continued to look around at the decorations that had been done and remained impressed.

Dana shambled over to them. “Hey you three, nice costumes, welcome to the party.” Dana for her part was wearing a zombie costume.

The place was crowded. Blackwell had several hundred students and Max knew like thirty. She shook her head and looked around to find if there was anyone here they knew besides Dana. It took just a second but a flash of light, and Juliet appeared with camera in hand. Her hair was up in a beehive and colored black and white in a Bride of Frankenstein style with a matching ethereal dress.

“Looking good ladies,” Juliet said after taking their pictures. “Brooke and Warren are over by the drinks, and let’s see, Taylor and Courtney are hanging out by the DJ booth, and…”

Before she could say anything, Daniel came up to the girls and smiled. In an irony both Max and Victoria could truly appreciate, Daniel was dressed up as a giant carrot. Kate separated from the two girls and walked up to Daniel.

“You look good enough to eat,” Kate said slightly playfully. Max’s eyes bulged a little bit at that and Victoria just smirked.

“Very cute,” Daniel said. “It’s like we were meant to be together, the bunny and the carrot.” He held out an arm. “Shall we?”

Kate looked back and both Max and Victoria gave a shooing motion. Max knew that Kate deserved to be happy, so she didn’t mind as well.

Max was tuning out Dana and Juliet now that Kate was gone. She was focused on Victoria now. Her heart raced and she slowed her breathing to try and calm down. _Just do it Max!_ She stepped closer to Victoria and started to open her mouth.

“I’m going to go check on Courtney and Taylor,” Victoria suddenly said.

Max shut her mouth. She just about had the courage to ask Victoria to dance before the tall blonde spoke up.

Victoria looked over concerned, “Is that alright? Want to come too, or want me to stay here?”

Max shook her head. “No, no, Victoria. You have friends here too, go see them. I think I’ll just go look for Warren and Brooke.”

Looking a little skeptical, Victoria nodded and headed off to see to her other friends.

_Wow Max, you had it right there and you couldn’t pull the trigger._

‘I bet you would have done it if she dared you.’

She turned around suddenly, disbelieving her ears, but there was no one there. Max shook her head. For a moment she thought she heard Chloe speaking right behind her but there was no one there. _Okay Max, no going crazy now._

Max started to move, wandering through the party. Even though she got schooled by Victoria on how to dance at the Vortex Club event, Max wasn’t feeling it at the moment as she headed over to the refreshment table.

The crowd was getting a little rougher to get through, and she felt like stabbing several people with her fake sword but Max resisted the urge and she emerged from the other side of the crowd, making a mental note that she wasn’t ready for the mosh pit. She looked around as she kept on walking forward until she saw Brooke and Warren and froze.

They could not have picked two worse costumes for Max to see them in. Warren had come to the party dressed as a pirate, and Brooke was wearing a butterfly costume. A blue butterfly costume. Warren raised his hand waving to Max.

“If it isn’t Link with the Maxster sword.”

Max instinctively started to raise her left hand. _What’s the point, even if you rewound right now you couldn’t undo seeing this_. She stood frozen looking at the pirate and the blue butterfly before she turned away.

Her breathing was shallow as she bowled herself into the crowd of people, just trying to get out, just get away. _Keep it together Max, you can do it._ Other students were not taking kindly to the way Max was trying to shove her way through, starting a little commotion as she made her way out.

Victoria was away from the crowd but had noticed the mood of the place was changing. She thought she caught a glimpse of green tunic pushing out of the crowd quickly, and turned to follow.

Max made it to a door of the gym and went outside quickly, taking a sharp right and making a beeline for one of the trees. She took large gasps of air as the tears were falling from her eyes and she collapsed to the ground by the tree, crying and alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a little note, being inspired by another project, on my tumblr for my stories (lismovingforward.tumblr.com) I'm going to be doing some updates in the form of Max's journal entries. Sometimes they'll be previews of chapters to come, other times they'll react to what is happening, or even simply little side things.


	22. The Pirate and the Butterfly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria deals with Max's breakdown.

Victoria exited the same gym doors she thought she had seen Max run away through, looking around for the hipster brunette in the cute Link costume. It took a little longer than she would have liked, but Victoria spotted Max on the ground on all fours by one of the trees and rushed over to her friend, whispering, “No, no, no, no, no,” the entire way.

When Victoria reached Max, she only grew more worried at the sobbing. Bending down to come along side the green-tuniced girl, Victoria softly said, “Max?”

No response other than sobbing came from the brunette. Victoria very slowly and carefully moved her arm to the girl’s back to act as a comforting touch. When the weather made its own attempt to mask Max’s tears Victoria didn’t leave or try to shield herself from the rain, she just waited.

The rain had been falling for a good ten minutes, Victoria’s hand on Max’s back the whole time, before Max turned and looked up. Max’s eyes were red and the little makeup that Max had been wearing for her costume was running. “Hi,” Max said quietly.

Victoria shook her head but smiled anyway. “Hi.”

As Max started to come back to reality she shivered, finally noticing how rainy and cold it was. She looked over Victoria and frowned. “Oh, no, your makeup and costume.”

Victoria didn’t even have to guess about what Max was talking about. Blue makeup and body paint is meant to come off when wet, so with as hard as the rain was falling it was undoubtedly starting to run and get ruined.

“Who cares Max? It’s just a stupid costume, I’m more worried about you.” Victoria smiled reassuringly to Max.

Max attempted a smile but it came out looking a little odd on her face. Victoria backed off and held out her hands to help Max off the ground. Max accepted and the two girls were finally standing.

“Now let’s get out of this rain Max.”

“And out of these clothes,” Max said as she started walking back to the dorm.

Victoria remained standing frozen behind her, her lips pursed and looking kind of awkward. Max noticed this and frowned once more.

“Sorry Victoria, poor choice of words,” Max added before sighing. “This night sucks.”

Gaining her composure she simply brushed it off. “Not to worry Max, I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but I do respect that you’re trying to watch what you say.”

Max nodded and waited for Victoria to catch up to her. When she did the two girls set off for the dorm to get out of the rain.

\---

About an hour later both girls were in Victoria’s room in pajamas. They had taken showers for Max to warm up and for Victoria to not be so blue. As could be expected Victoria took way longer, but Max was waiting for her as she had been ordered to.

Sitting on Victoria’s bed they sat in awkward silence before Victoria finally broke it. “You know, I’d prefer Advent Children, because at least it’s connected to Final Fantasy, but we can watch Spirits Within if you’d like.”

A slight smile crossed Max’s face. “I’d like that.”

Victoria got up and put the movie in her player and turned on the TV.

“So can I ask what happened at the dance? No is an acceptable answer.”

Max let out a little sigh. “Brooke and Warren were dressed as a blue butterfly and a pirate.”

Victoria frowned and nodded. “I imagine that had to be some very shocking reminders of this month.”

“Yeah,” Max said quietly.

With the movie starting Victoria sat back down next to Max. Looking over the hipster she started to frown.

“Didn’t you have a blue fairy as part of your costume?”

“Well yeah, Link always has a guide, and I thought the blue could memorialize Chloe…” she trailed off, realizing that she had freaked out over Brooke’s blue butterfly when she basically had one of her own with her the entire time.

“I’m pathetic.”

Victoria stood up. “You knock that off this instant Maxine Caulfield!”

Max was so stunned by the sudden change in Victoria’s demeanor that she didn’t even bother correcting her back to Max.

“Look, you’re suffering, you’ve been through some things that are very heavy to deal with. It’s not your fault that certain things such as a costume trigger it when you have your own representation on you. Maybe it was the combination of her butterfly costume and his pirate costume. Maybe alone neither would have mattered, but together was a double punch in the stomach.

“Max, I’m going to say something to you that I don’t think you’ll like, but I know I must.” She paused for a moment. She had Max’s full attention throughout her spiel and she wanted to make sure that it hit home.

“I think you need to seek help.”

“You’re right.”

It was Victoria’s turn to be stunned. She hadn’t expected that Max would agree with her at all, let alone the idea that Max would agree almost immediately to the suggestion.

“I am?” Victoria asked in shock.

Max laughed at that. “Yes Victoria, you’re right. There’s lots of little things that are still a mess, and they might still be a mess for a very long time. But if there’s any chance that getting help will sort a few things out, or give me enough ways to cope without having to sleep with Kate every night then it’s totally worth pursuing.”

Victoria beamed. She sat back down next to Max and gave her a big hug. “Just remember Max, you’re not alone. You have Kate, and you have me, and both of us only want what’s best for you. Everything you’re going through is not just your burden, share and let us help you when we can. I know I speak for Kate on this.”

“Thanks Victoria.”

Breaking the hug they turned back to the movie and just watched it in silence. When Max leaned into Victoria, Victoria put an arm around her friend. Feelings or not, she knew Max needed a friend more than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to check out my tumblr for extra content. lismovingforward.tumblr.com


	23. Unconventional Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max supports Victoria at a court hearing for Nathan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Events that happen in this chapter are going to get violent and may have trigger warnings based on a lot of recent bad things in the news. Gun violence, murder, and suicidal tendencies are all present in this chapter. If you are concerned about any of those you should skip this chapter. Thanks!

Max exhaled as she looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t quite dressed up like she had been for Chloe’s funeral, but this is the closest to fancy dress she had been in almost a month. She looked at the black jeans, the crimson blouse, and the black cashmere she wore (curtesy Victoria of course). She looked at Victoria’s face in her mirror and Victoria nodded her approval.

She smiled and turned around. Victoria was glamorous as usual, even though she seemed overly nervous. It made total sense though, given that someone she had long considered a friend was to appear in court today. It had been longer than the usual three days at the request of Nathan’s defense team. He was getting treatment.

Max’s phone chimed that it was time for them to get going. It still felt strange to Max that she occasionally had to be the strong one, but here was another one of those times. She grabbed Victoria’s hand, their matching bracelets briefly touching as the two ladies made their way out of the Prescott Dorm.

The car ride to the courthouse was uneventful. Victoria remained looking nervous the entire time.

“It will be okay Victoria. Nathan had a lot of stuff working against him to make him so susceptible to someone like Jefferson. Hopefully the court will do the right thing,” Max told her trying to cheer up her blonde friend.

“What is the right thing Max?”

Max sighed. Victoria had a point there. There wasn’t a great answer, but there was only one that could come to Max’s head that made any sense.

“That the courts enable him to get the help he needs instead of just throwing the book at him.”

Victoria nodded. “You’re right. I mean I know he did bad things, but I still consider him a friend. Perhaps if he is given the proper treatment then there is a chance of something positive still happening from this whole damn situation.”

Max could only nod. There wasn’t a whole lot she could see positive, since the situation still involved the death of Chloe.

Getting out of the car the ladies straightened themselves up. Max looked around and was surprised that she saw a very familiar RV. _Why would Frank show up for Nathan’s hearing?_ She thought about going over to the RV but then she realized that in this reality she had never met Frank. That might be awkward to meet under this circumstance.

The two walked into the courthouse hand in hand, mainly because Max knew that Victoria needed the support. It still surprised Max that for how strong Victoria had always seemed before, that she could be just as fragile as everyone else. Max really appreciated how human Victoria was when she wasn’t wearing the armor of bitchiness.

They found seats a few rows behind where Nathan would eventually be seated and just waited. The gallery wasn’t filling fast because it wasn’t the biggest case in recent history. They missed Jefferson’s arraignment, but he was held without bond, and his case was only getting bigger. Last Max had heard since he had victims in multiple states, and many victims at that, it might eventually become a Federal case instead of just a state case.

Just before ten, Nathan was brought in manacled, but not in the traditional orange jumpsuit. They had allowed him to change into a normal wardrobe even though both his feet and hands were cuffed. Nathan saw Victoria and cracked a slight smile. Max took note that it was a smile and not a smirk, Nathan looked genuinely happy to see Victoria. Max had caught his eye and he quickly turned away. _Was that guilt I just saw?_

Everyone rose when the judge came in, then sat down. The legal stuff was boring for Max. She kept holding Victoria’s hand as the judge had read out a litany of charges against Nathan, including multiple counts of murder, kidnap, abduction, conspiracy and sexual assault. The whole list made Max shiver.

“How does the defendant plead?”

Nathan and his team of fancy lawyers stood up. “Not guilty by reason of insanity.”

The judge nodded to that. “I presume there’s history to back that up?”

The lawyer nodded and the judge looked over to the prosecution.

“Any objections?”

The prosecutor stood up and Max was surprised that the woman seemed rather young to be doing the job of prosecuting someone like Nathan.

“The people do not object your honor. Mister Prescott has a history of mental illness that hasn’t been adequately treated. While the people do not find it as an excuse, confinement to a mental health facility will be an acceptable solution.”

Another nod from the judge. “Is there anyone connected to the victims who might have grounds to object counselor?”

Max looked around. She knew that David and Joyce weren’t going to come today, knowing what the outcome would be. As much as they were mad that Nathan had killed Chloe, they felt it was Sean Prescott and Mark Jefferson who enabled it. They were willing to let Nathan slide if the bigger fish got fried, even though for now that would only be Jefferson.

The prosecutor nodded. “Maxine Caulfield is present your honor.”

Max looked a little stunned that her name was called out. Soon the judge said, “If Miss Caulfield is here and would like to say anything, now is your chance.”

Victoria turned and was almost staring at Max, boring into her. Not letting go of Victoria’s hand, she stood up. When the judge nodded she spoke.

“While I am devastated about losing my best friend due to Nathan Prescott’s actions, I am well aware of the mistreatment and abuse he suffered at the hand of others. Nathan needs help, and if that can be provided it should be.”

She sat back down when she was finished. Victoria was smiling at her but she also noticed that Nathan was looking at her, almost curious as to her motivation. Only Victoria and Kate even knew about how messed up things had gotten for Nathan, but neither of them knew that Max still had Nathan’s voicemail to her on the night before the storm, when he tried to warn her and apologize. That was a powerful motivator.

“Will the prosecution and Defense both stand?” The judge said and they did.

“I object,” was shouted from the back of the courtroom. There were gasps from the few that were present. It was Frank, and he looked pissed. The only time that Max had seen Frank like that was in the aborted timeline when he attacked Max and Chloe at the beach, and in the diner when she spilled his beans.

The judge banged his gavel. “Order. And who might you be?”

“My name is Frank Bowers, and I was dating Rachel Amber when he drugged and murdered her.”

More gasping and more banging of the gavel. The judge wasn’t happy but he nodded. “Proceed Mister Bowers.”

Frank walked forward up the aisle. “That kid is sick alright. Sick that he was getting off on dosing girls and taking intimate photos of them. He doesn’t deserve a rubber room, he deserves a concrete slab.”

Bang, bang, bang went the gavel. “Thank you, but that’s quite enough Mister Bowers.”

Frank shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

Frank pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nathan. *bang*

There was screaming and running in the courtroom as the shot rang out and Nathan fell where he stood, blood staining through the suit he was wearing. Victoria started crying and several bailiffs pulled out their own weapons and were aiming at Frank.

“The worst part is that she still doesn’t have justice. There were three people responsible for her death.” This was said very calmly. When he started his next sentence his voice broke and tears were streaming from his eyes. “Jefferson will get his, but the last one, the supplier of the drugs deserves justice as well.”

Frank put the gun up to his own head.

As another shot rang out from Frank’s gun, Max raised her hand, and everything started to rewind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you feel things are bad enough to have to resort to violence for any reason, please seek proper help! If this game has taught us nothing it's that ignoring mental health issues has disastrous consequences for more than just the person suffering from said issues.


	24. Affirmation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max changes Frank's mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Crazy week.

Max pulled her hand back and grabbed her head. The telltale headache she always got when rewinding a bit too much hit her. _Ugh, Christine didn’t seem to be affected by this anymore. I wonder if I will get there too?_ As much as she was focused inward at the moment, she kept hearing her name being called and had to focus back out.

“Max?” came Victoria’s voice, sounding genuinely freaked out.

Max was confused as she looked around. The courtroom was indeed empty, save for her and Victoria. She found a clock and noticed that it was definitely before the trial started. _Wait, what’s Victoria doing here?_ She looked at her friend who was shaking in her seat.

“Max? What was that? What just happened?”

She couldn’t believe it. Blinking several times while looking at Victoria, she finally broke her silence. “I think I just brought you back in time with me.”

“Is that what you were doing the whole time that week?”

Max nodded.

“That had to be some trip,” Victoria responded before looking even more freaked out. “Oh no, Max, your nose.” She reached her hand out to Max.

For her part Max was rather used to this and just used her fingers to wipe away the blood. “It happens. Now let’s get out of here, we have to stop Frank.”

Grabbing Victoria’s hand, Max stood up and dragged the blonde with her out of the courthouse. Victoria protested the entire time, wondering why they just couldn’t warn the guard. Max suggested it would work as a backup plan, but her goal was simple, convince Frank to not go through with it. After all, for all his skeeziness, Frank’s love of dogs was a net positive in the world.

Reaching the parking lot, the two girls saw Victoria’s car (empty of course) and Frank’s RV. Max was confident, more confident than Victoria had ever seen her as she marched right up to the RV and knocked on the door.

She heard rummaging behind the door before Frank opened it.

“Do I know you?”

Max froze, frowning. Technically he didn’t know her she realized. She only knew him in the alternate reality.

“No, you don’t,” Max said confidently, “but I’m here to stop you from making the second biggest mistake of your life.”

Frank looked irritated at this. “All you bratty college age kids think you know me and what kind of mistakes I’ve made. You don’t know nothing.” He was slamming the door shut on her.

“You sold Nathan the drugs used to kill Rachel,” Max blurted out. Victoria gasped, and the door stopped moving. Slowly it started to reopen and Frank was no longer irritated, he was pissed. She had seen him this pissed before, but that was when he was ready to kill her either at the beach or in the diner.

“I know you loved Rachel Amber, and she loved you. I know you blame Nathan for overdosing her, but it was your drugs that were used to kill her.” Max was standing firm, alpha like as she demanded Frank to challenge her words.

Victoria watched in horror as Frank stood waiting, as if his own mind was running through the calculations of what he should do in this circumstance. “How do you know about…?”

“Chloe Price,” Max said, a little less aggressively now.

Frank definitely frowned at this. “Bitch died owing me money.”

“And how would Rachel feel if you called one of her best friends a bitch, and the fact that the money Chloe borrowed was for the both of them?”

A pause from Frank, and another frown. He shook his head as he changed tactics. “And what is it you think is going to be this second biggest mistake of my life?”

Max reached back and grabbed Victoria’s hand for moral support (and just in case). “I think you’re going to go into that courtroom and before Nathan is confined for a decade to a mental hospital you’re going to pull out a gun and shoot him before committing suicide yourself.”

Frank looked stunned. His jaw flapped open and closed several times. He had no utter idea how this girl, this waif he had never met before could seem to know so much about him. Even more it was like she was predicting the future. He had planned exactly that.

“How?”

Max ignored the question and continued on. “Frank, have you done some things that have caused real harm? Yes. But you’ve also done some real good. I know you’ve rescued dogs that were trained to kill, dogs that were part of fighting rings. You’ve done good in the world and Rachel would be pissed if you did what you’re planning to go through.”

More flapping of the jaw without sound coming out. Frank wondered if he was dreaming, or perhaps he already shot himself in court and this was some sort of purgatory where his life was being examined before his very eyes.

Frank sighed and nodded. “You’re right,” he said quietly, almost dejectedly. “Rachel would hate me for doing it. You have no idea how much I miss her, or how much it kills me that it’s because of my actions that she is dead.”

“You have a second chance here Frank. You know the truth, you know how you screwed up. Make sure this kind of thing never happens again. Help others not repeat your mistakes. You can still do a lot of good in this world in Rachel’s name.”

He took several deep breaths. He nodded and pulled out the gun he was going to use. Victoria started to pull at Max out of fear, but Max stood firm. Frank removed the clip from the gun and held it out to Max who calmly took it.

“Nathan was manipulated, he was a vulnerable kid. I’m sure you saw how manic he was. I bet you even noted it in your sale book. He will get his chance to heal, and you can start your penance.”

Frank couldn’t believe how he had just been talked down by this girl and her scared friend. He of course recognized the blonde, she was a friend of Prescott’s, but this new girl. Was she some sort of guardian angel?

“Thank you,” Frank said quietly.

“Good luck Frank,” Max said and started to turn away.

“Wait,” Frank called out, stepping out of the RV?

Max turned and looked at him.

“Who are you?”

Max smiled, “My name is Max Caulfield.”

Frank’s heart skipped a beat. “So you were there when the Prescott kid…”

Max nodded, “Murdered Chloe, yes.”

A sigh escaped Frank’s lips. “I suppose if you, who also lost someone to that kid can let him be, then so can I. Thanks Max Caulfield. If you need something…”

She smiled. “I appreciate that Frank. Good luck out there.” With that she turned again and started heading back to the courtroom. It was almost time after all.

Max ditched the ammo in the garbage can outside the court and they walked back into the building and found the same seats as before. Victoria was oddly quiet the whole time and Max looked at her expectantly.

When Victoria finally broke the short vow of silence she seemed to take she did it in a big way. Victoria grabbed Max’s face and pressed her own lips to Max’s hard. Max responded in kind as the girls kissed sitting on the benches in the courtroom. When Victoria finally broke it she blushed.

“Sorry Max.”

Max remained confused by a lot of things when it came to Victoria, Chloe, and relationships in general still. But admittedly she felt that kiss was quite hot.

“What are you sorry for Victoria?”

“I know that you’re still trying to figure things out doofus. I just couldn’t help that. You were brilliant back there. You didn’t rewind at all, right?”

Max tilted her head in thought. “No, I guess I didn’t. I must be getting good at this.”

Victoria couldn’t help but smile, and the two girls talked quietly about the experience up until the hearing started.

The two let things proceed as normal. When it came time the prosecution and defense both stood at the judge’s order.

“Given that I have no evidence to the contrary, and that the people are amenable to this solution, this court accepts the not-guilty plea and orders Nathan Prescott assigned to a psychiatric hospital for an indeterminate amount of time.”

He banged his gavel and the hearing was over. Victoria got up and headed closer, hoping to say hi to Nathan. Max remained seated, content to watch as Victoria and Nathan briefly reconnected before Nathan was taken away.

When Victoria returned Max stood, ready to head out. That’s when they were approached by a woman. Victoria seemed to recognize her and she broke into a soft smile. When Victoria and the unknown woman hugged Max checked out the competition. _Competition?_ The girl was fairly skinny, short dirty blonde hair that was slightly longer than what Chloe’s had been. She looked tired, as though she’d been up for several days, and the area around her eyes was red.

“So this must be Maxine Caulfield?” the woman asked Victoria after breaking the hug.

“Max, never Maxine,” Victoria and Max said together before both giggling.

The woman looked a bit confused but shrugged. “Good, I was hoping to talk to you Max.” She held out her hand, “I’m Kristine Prescott, Nathan’s older sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to check out my story tumblr. lismovingforward.tumblr.com


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